It was a normal Friday afternoon for a family of five, until a car suddenly crashed into their home in their usually ‘peaceful and small’ residential area in a market town in Gloucestershire
A family of five’s home was completely destroyed after a car crashed into their living room, leaving their beloved belongings under rubble and forcing them to evacuate their property.
Freda Amang, 32, and her husband Enock Aidoo, 32, had lived at their rented home in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, with their three children, an eight-year-old son, and daughters, five and 19 months, since November 2022. Before, they never encountered any issues in the area, with their home at the end of a residential road, which Freda described as a “lovely, peaceful and small area”.
But one day, after Freda returned home from a late shift as a support worker and was sleeping upstairs with her 19-month-old daughter, she suddenly heard a “loud bang” coming from downstairs.
The mum of three exclusively told the Mirror: “It was about 3pm on Friday, July 4, and I had just come back from my night shift and was sleeping upstairs with my youngest daughter. My other two children were at school, and I was going to collect them.
“I was sleeping and then heard a very loud bang on the house. I opened the curtains to see what was going on. That was when I saw that the car had crashed into the building.
“I couldn’t think and was in such a bad shock, so the people outside were shouting to me, ‘get down, get down’. I didn’t know what to do, I was just so shocked and my brain couldn’t really tell me anything, so I was just staring, looking outside.”
Freda ran downstairs holding her baby daughter and sat on the pavement outside, still overcome with shock. She recalled: “I can’t even remember how I even got downstairs, as everything I did was out of shock.
“Some of the neighbours came out and asked if I was ok. One of them offered to pick up the kids from school, as I just forgot about everything, I really couldn’t function.”
Police arrived at the scene, and the family was told that it was “unsafe to stay” in their home due to the amount of damage. Freda said that the majority of the living room, including the sofa, dining table, and desk, was destroyed.
She added: “The house is in a very bad state and it’s very dangerous to go in there.” There are also concerns that the damage caused downstairs could affect the upstairs of their home.
The family had to “pack essentials” and was moved to temporary accommodation for three nights before staying in a hotel for two more nights. The council then provided them with a two-bedroom flat, half an hour away from Chipping Sodbury, until they find a more permanent home.
“Our home is going to take a while to be fixed after the incident, but we want to go back to Chipping Sodbury,” Freda said. In addition, the mum of three has been forced to drastically cut back her hours at work due to the location of their current temporary accommodation.
“I can’t go to work because of the distance, I can only do one day, and public transport takes too long,” the mum shared. “Me and my husband work at the same place, so he would come home, pick me up with the kids and then drop me off at work before coming back home to be with the kids while I worked a late shift. But we can’t do that anymore as it takes too long.”
The family have been left devastated by the ordeal. Freda told us: “I’ve been traumatised and my kids have been as well. They weren’t in school for weeks because there’s a lot going on.
“We had to leave our house. I’ve got fish who are in the garden and some in my lounge, and I’m not sure they’ll be alive as the electricity had to be turned off. You can’t have your normal routines back.
“I can’t even sleep, because anytime I sleep, the little noise I hear, I feel there’s something scary going on. Noise brings that memory back to me so badly.
“I still have anxiety that something bad is going to happen. Life hasn’t been the same; it’s really changed a lot.”
The family has been left without a permanent residence, and they have no idea when or if they’ll ever return to the property that they once called home. In a bid to help them through this difficult time, their friend has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the family.
The Mirror has contacted Avon and Somerset police for a comment on this incident.