Death-crash car launches off the road and into a first floor flat

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John Gordon's Volvo took off after hitting a tree on a roundabout and flew until it crashed into the flats 15ft off the ground and facing backwards.

The car smashed into a lounge where 19-year-old Laura Stevens had been a few seconds earlier.

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Embedded: The rear of the Volvo has disappeared into the first floor flat in Peterborough

Emergency crews spent half an hour cutting free Mr Gordon, 31, but he later died from his injuries. His nine-year-old son, who was his passenger, survived with cuts and bruises.

Engineers had to spend three hours dismantling the wall of the flats in Werrington, Peterborough, before they could remove the car.

Mr Gordon, from Peterborough, hit the roundabout at around 9.10am on Saturday, clipped a tree and bounced before being catapulted into the air.

His car cartwheeled so it entered Miss Stevens's flat backwards, sending debris flying on to the floor.

It is believed a neighbour and a paramedic who was passing ran to help and managed to pull the boy from the wreck inside the lounge.

Firemen worked from inside the flat to free Mr Gordon, who had been heading along the A15 Werrington parkway towards the city centre.

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Crash scene: The roundabout where John Gordon came to grief

He was taken to Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge but died later that day.

Miss Stevens's mother Claire, 38, said her daughter, a supermarket worker, has not been able to go back to the flat since the crash.

"She is just so lucky to be alive," she said. "Seconds earlier or later and she would not have made it either."

Fire station boss Lynn Betteridge, who attended the crash, said: "We have had to deal with vehicles in buildings before but never one which went into the first-floor."