A MAN whose front wall was demolished by an out-of-control motorist has called for greater safety measures to be installed.

Gary Aylen, 50, of Alderton Hill, Loughton, said he felt lucky to be alive after a car crashed through his property and uprooted a tree where he had just been picking apples with his young children.

He said: “There were two cars actually and one just span and broke a hole in my wall and knocked my apple tree out. No one was hurt but the really worrying thing is the hour before I was standing there with my eight-year-old twins picking apples to make a pie. It made me sick.

“I got hold of the driver's number. I called him, and he said: 'I wasn't speeding, I wasn't speeding'. I said: 'This is the biggest stroke of luck you've had. You could have killed yourself and you would have certainly killed my twins.'”

The crash comes less than a month after calls were made by concerned parents at nearby Roding Valley High School for a crossing to be installed.

Mr Aylen said: “Something has to be done before someone dies. There's children from the school who cross on the road fairly regularly, and there's people just treating it as a race track.

“The house next door has been hit twice in the last year in similar cases. They're just going too fast round that corner. I can go out of an evening and I see cars coming down on the wrong side of the road.

“They have got to do something before someone dies. We were so shocked because we were standing there before. It was too close for comfort.”

Essex County Council has said it is currently looking into the possibility of installing a crossing in Alderton Hill.