A Nottinghamshire nurse says she had to organise for her living room to be boarded up after her insurance company failed to do so when an orange Ford Mustang crashed into her lounge. Carol Shephard, 61, who lives on Mansfield Road in Redhill, was watching TV in her lounge when the window suddenly fell on her legs and she was hit in the face by a brick.
It happened at around 4.38pm on Saturday, January 7, after the driver of the Mustang reportedly tried to overtake three cars when coming off the roundabout situated just before Carol Shephard's home. Carol said: "I was just sat there watching TV and then the car hit into the window, but at the time I had no idea what had happened.
"It was eventually the people in the cars that the driver had tried to overtake that came to help me out, because I had become trapped. I have lived in this house since 2007 and I have been aware of speeding drivers being an issue along this road, but obviously nothing ever on this scale.
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"The room is a complete mess now and you can't get in it because there are bricks and debris everywhere. I went to the hospital straight after it happened so they could do an X-ray and fortunately, nothing was broken, but it has left me incredibly sore and I had two huge black eyes after it happened."
Carol, who herself works as a nurse at Nottingham City Hospital, returned home that same evening to find that a Nottinghamshire Police officer was guarding the house given that the front of it was totally exposed. But the officer said they had been told to stand down once Carol returned home.
Carol therefore rang her insurers, Admiral, to see if somebody could come out to assess the damage and board up the property. But she says that Admiral told her that nobody from the buildings and contents department was in at the weekend.
She tried calling again on the Sunday but was once again told by Admiral, with whom she has had buildings and contents insurance for nearly two years, that nobody was in at the weekend. She said: "I then tried phoning them on the Monday and I got put through to about three different people, and eventually they said that a structural engineer would need to come out but that they would be from a different company.
"They eventually came on the Wednesday but when they arrived, they said the job was too big for them. They took some photos and said they would call me back in two hours, but I never heard from them.
"The last I heard from Admiral was on Friday (January 13) when they said that a structural engineer still needed to come out, but the company doing it told me they couldn't come until January 25. I don't even know if they are coming on that date because they said they were looking into whether someone could come sooner."
Carol lives in her property with her two sons, aged 35 and 27, whilst her elderly parents live in an annex. She said: "I was just being passed around by the insurers so we eventually sorted it ourselves for the property to be boarded up on Tuesday (January 10).
"The crash also meant that we didn't have any gas or electric and so we didn't have any hot water. My elderly mother is disabled and my father is quite ill so it was an absolute nightmare getting everything sorted and eventually we had to get out own people in to sort the gas and electric out too.
"I expected better and I thought that even on a weekend, somebody would have come out to me when the front of my house was totally exposed to the elements. I've even written to the Chief Executive of Admiral but she just passed me straight to the complaints department."
Nottinghamshire Police confirmed investigations are still ongoing into the incident.
A spokesperson for Admiral said: "Firstly, we’d like to say we’re sorry to Ms Shephard for the delays to her claim and apologise that she has had to contact us on several occasions. We appreciate this must have been a distressing and upsetting experience for Ms Shephard.
"We take all customer feedback very seriously and have raised this as a complaint under urgent investigation. Our complaints team will provide a full response to her once this is complete.
"We accept that there have been unacceptable delays dealing with her claim and it is being treated as a priority. A senior member of our Claims team is in direct contact with Ms Shephard to update her on the progress of her claim.
"We are currently arranging details with Ms Shephard to get her home made safe and company has been appointed to carry out the restoration works at her home. Our loss adjusters have also been in contact with her and we are trying arrange for structural engineers to attend the property sooner.
"Most importantly, we want to ensure that we are doing everything we can to put things right for Ms Shephard and we are talking with her to make sure we resolve this quickly and safely."
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