Horror as car crashes into first floor of barn after hitting trampoline, leaving boy, 7, critical
A boy is fighting for his life in hospital after a car crashed into the trampoline he was playing on, before launching into the air and getting stuck in the roof of a barn.
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The dramatic crash in a quiet German town has left several people injured, after the car veered off a road, hit a seven-year-old boy on a trampoline and went flying into a barn roof on its side.
The Volvo SUV first hit a parked vehicle in the town of Bohmte, in the north-west of the country, and then broke through two hedges, police said.
After breaking through a hedge, it fell about five feet into a lower-lying garden where it hit the boy on the trampoline at speed.
The car then went over uneven ground and was apparently catapulted into the air and ended up crashing into the roof of a neighbouring barn about three metres off the ground.
The boy was seriously injured in the incident on Saturday evening, the police statement said.
Neighbour Daniela Viss had been on her balcony for a long time that day, but had just gone inside to eat when she heard the terrifying crash.
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“I heard this massive crash and thought, ‘Holy cow, what just happened?” she told tv7news.
“We rushed outside and saw the car stuck in the roof.
“The mother was just screaming. My boyfriend called the ambulance and police right away.”
The garden was left demolished as a result of the crash, with the trampoline completely wrecked and a number of trees mown down.
There were five people inside the car, including the driver, an unidentified 42-year-old man, his wife and two sons, 11 and 12, and another 13-year-old child.
The driver’s wife, 43, was also seriously injured, but the children on board were luckily left with minor injuries, like the driver.
Nearby resident Olga Folik said she looked out the window when she heard the noises but couldn’t initially see anything.
“I went over to the neighbour’s house; an ambulance was already there,” she told German magazine Focus.
“I only saw the fence and the garden destroyed. And the car stuck in the barn on the second floor. I just thought, ‘How can something like that happen?’”
“I just hope the child is okay. I had to go back to my children right away. That’s why I don’t know any more,” She told the local outlet.
Dozens of firefighters, as well as 12 ambulance crews and two rescue helicopters were among the emergency services deployed in response.
Images from the scene showed rescuers cutting through the roof, and wreckage of a playground that the car ran through.
The car had to be removed from the roof with a crane and was taken away by police.
Those injured in the crash were taken to local hospitals for treatment, and the driver had blood samples taken. Police said they’re ruling out alcohol as the cause of the crash.