By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A SLEEPING couple has narrowly avoided death or serious injury after a stolen tractor ploughed into their bedroom in a Lyndhurst residential estate early on Tuesday morning.
The 34-year-old man and 41-year-old woman were woken by the 2009 John Deere tractor crashing through their front bedroom wall in Castawellan Street about 12.45am.
The pair were taken to Dandenong Hospital with minor injuries.
Two teenagers sleeping in the rear of the house were uninjured.
For much of Tuesday, the front of the tractor was embedded in the house, having crushed the couple’s bed and rammed through to the bedroom’s back wall.
It had somehow negotiated a roundabout before steering up the home’s driveway and entering the bedroom front-on.
Cranbourne police Senior Sergeant Paul Marshall said the couple was “extremely lucky to be alive” from the “horrific” incident.
“It could have had catastrophic consequences,” he said.
“This is incredibly serious and we need to talk to the driver of the tractor as soon as possible.”
He said it was assumed the tractor, attached to a trailer of flower seedlings, had come from a market garden.
“Looking at the scene and the damage caused, it’s highly unlikely the driver was in the cabin (when it crashed).
“It would have been a horrific experience (for the couple).”
Some neighbours slept through what others described as a loud crash when the tractor struck the house.
A night-shift worker returning home that morning was “shocked” by the crash.
“I though it had happened at a farm. I can’t believe it was my neighbour’s house.”
Any information to Crime Stoppers, 1800 333 000 or crimestoppersvic.com.au.
