A PREGNANT woman and her young daughter had a lucky escape when a lorry careered out of control outside their terraced home.

And the accident has prompted new calls for traffic calming measures amid fears that drivers are using the narrow road as a rat-run'.

The lorry collided with a Mercedes van, shoving an unoccupied parked car across the pavement and straight through the front garden wall.

The lorry overturned and the Fiat Brava ended up inches from the house with its petrol tank crushed.

Christina Cooke, whose baby is due in mid-September, was at the back of her rented house with two-year-old Ellie-Mae when the crash happened.

Her Ford Focus was shunted about 30 metres up the road by the 7.5 tonne lorry, which ended up on its side, blocking Courthill Road in Parkstone, Poole.

"I heard the noise, looked out of my window and saw that in my garden," she said as she looked at the wreckage and cuddled her daughter. "I burst into tears and wondered what had happened to my car- it's just a shock. It's a good job we weren't going out. It doesn't bear thinking about."

Mrs Cooke added: "It would be a good idea to introduce a 20 mile an hour limit."

Neighbour Jacqui Gee said: "I heard the crash. It shook my house three doors away. I went out the front to see the lorry turned over."

Van driver, marine engineer Jake Forward, 22, said: "I had just pulled over to park when the lorry clipped the boot. It didn't hit me very hard. It's unbelievable - and so lucky nobody was walking along the road."

The lorry driver, who did not want to be named, escaped with a cut on his hand. He told the Echo: "I was driving along when something gave way. I tried to straighten up but I couldn't."

Alan Lavery, 70, who has lived in the road for 47 years, said: "It was an accident waiting to happen. This has turned from a residential area into a major rat run."

He added that the opening of two supermarket branches in Bournemouth Road had increased traffic and led to other collisions involving delivery vehicles.

Ward councillor Elaine Atkinson said there was already some traffic calming around nearby Courthill First School, but added: "We might need to review traffic calming and other measures in that road. In other roads with schools, we are rolling out a 20mph limit.

"The houses are Victorian and were all built without parking spaces. Everybody has to park on the road and it gets very tight." Dorset police are now investigating the incident.

l A man was arrested after fleeing from the scene of a five-car crash on the Wessex Way yesterday morning.

The collision took place between the Frizzell and Cambridge Road roundabouts at 9.45am. Ambulance and fire crews attended, but no-one was trapped or seriously hurt.

One of the cars involved was a blue VW Golf GTI that had been reported stolen from Queens Road, Bournemouth, the previous day. Two men were seen running away and a 26-year-old from Poole was detained after being chased by at least two members of the public.

The crash left a large amount of debris on the verge and the road was temporarily closed, causing congestion on other routes. PC Scott Mesher from Dorset Police's road policing unit wants to hear from anyone who saw the way the blue VW was being driven or who saw anyone making off from the car.

Witnesses and anyone with information about either of the collisions are asked to ring 01202 222222.