A MOTHER today called for extra safety measures on a busy Burnley road after a car ploughed into her front garden and stopped just inches from the house.

Kirsty Moorhouse, 36, of Eastern Avenue, was watching TV with partner Paul Riley in the front room about 9pm yesterday when the Ford Fiesta came off the bend at Widow Hill Road and careered through the fence.

Mrs Moorhouse, whose two children, Daniel, 12 and Kayleigh, 11, had gone upstairs to bed just moments before, dived out of the way as the car sped towards the house. Fire brigade officers said the driver, female passenger and three children, got out of the car and fled the scene.

Mrs Moorhouse said: "We heard a loud screech of brakes. We saw the car coming straight towards the house. We dived out of the way and the car turned and stopped just before it hit the wall.

"The garden is a mess but we were lucky really as it could have been much worse if the car had hit the house.

"We went outside to see if the people in the car were OK and we asked them to come in as they were obviously injured but they disappeared down the road." Firefighters removed the car which had hit a set of traffic lights before ploughing into the garden.

Mrs Moorhouse said: "I will be going to see the council to see if anything can be done about putting a barrier up at the side of the road.

"There are lots of lorries coming from the industrial estate and it only takes one to have a problem with the brakes or to lose control and they could crash straight into the house."

Police yesterday arrested a man for motoring offences in relation to an incident in Eastern Avenue.