A LINTHWAITE couple got a shock when a car careered down a 30ft embankment and crashed into their house.

Elaine Irvine and husband Shaun were at their home on Manchester Road when the accident happened at 6.15pm on Saturday.

Elaine was downstairs in the living room at the front of the house while Shaun was upstairs in the bathroom, at the back of the property.

Elaine said: "We were getting ready to go out. I just heard a massive bang. I thought my husband had fallen in the bathroom."

But she soon discovered he had not.

On going outside to investigate the noise, Elaine found her neighbours peering at a blue car that had crashed into the back wall of her house.

The car had been parked in Yew Tree Lane, Cowlersley - which is 30ft above Mrs Irvine's house.

It was being loaded with musical gear by its owner when it began to roll away.

It careered down the grass bank, smashed a fence and finally came to rest in the house wall.

It hit the outside wall of the bathroom - right where Shaun had been taking a shower.

Fortunately, the car's pace had been slowed by the fence and it only dented the outer brickwork.

Elaine said: "The handbrake was on, so we don't really know how it all happened.

"If our fence had not taken some of the impact, it could have done more damage.

"My husband would have taken the brunt of it, because he was standing where it hit."

Police were called and a tow truck pulled the car away from the house, back up the embankment to Yew Tree Lane.

Elaine and Shaun, who have lived at the house for two years, are waiting for an insurance assessment of the situation.

Elaine said: "We are just waiting now. At least we can still live in our house.

"I was in shock at the time - and the car owners were too. But I've calmed down a bit, now.

"One of my neighbours told me something similar happened a few years ago, when a JCB came down the embankment.

"It was not a particularly comforting thought," added Elaine.