A 12-year-old boy took his mother's Volkswagen Tiguan in the middle of the night and drove 38 miles before crashing off a 40mph road. The vehicle veered off Horton Road in Horton Heath, Dorset, and ploughed into a telegraph pole at 2am, knocking out power to nearby homes.
Residents describe aftermath
Lorraine and Matthew Tricksey were woken by the crash in the early hours of Friday morning. At first they were too scared to go outside, but did once police arrived. Mr Tricksey spent hours clearing up spilt oil, and the couple had to get a generator as their fridge, freezer, cooker, TV and WiFi stopped working.
Mrs Tricksey said: 'We woke up suddenly at 2am, I think that was the impact. We suddenly realised we were in complete blackness, which was because the telegraph poles had been knocked down and our electricity knocked out.'
Police investigation
A Dorset Police spokesperson said: 'We received a report at 2.05am on August 14 of a single vehicle collision on Horton Road at Horton Heath involving a white Volkswagen Tiguan. Officers attended and it was reported that the occupant of the vehicle, a 12-year-old boy, had not sustained any serious injuries.'
The boy was taken to hospital by a third party as a precaution and is assisting officers with their investigation. No arrests have been made, and enquiries remain ongoing. The wrecked car was left at the scene for two days before being recovered, and engineers worked round the clock to re-erect the telegraph poles and re-wire them.
