A MUM escaped being struck by a car just seconds before it smashed through her garden wall.

Rachel Ward was letting her two dogs into the back garden yesterday evening when her seven-year-old daughter called for her.

The 29-year-old headed back into the house, followed by the dogs, and moments later a black Volkswagen Golf ploughed through the outside wall.

The front garden, neighbours fences and shed were irreparably damaged in the crash, and the driver fled the scene.

At the time daughter Kayla had no idea that she saved her mum from serious harm, but cried when she saw the damage the car had caused.

She said: “I saved my mum by shouting.

“I was in my mum’s bedroom when it happened and heard her shouting. I didn’t hear the crash.”

The mam and daughter live in the converted ground floor flat of the two storey house, and Kayla’s room is at the front next to the garden.

Following the crash she is now afraid to stay in the bedroom.

Miss Ward, who works for Hoover Candy in Bolton, said: “We are fine but very shaken. I can’t believe it, it was literally seconds and it could have been a different story.

“We were really lucky. I heard a massive bang and ran outside, I had no idea what had happened.

“There were bricks everywhere. If we’d been outside even the car missed us, the flying bricks could have killed someone. They landed all the way up the garden path at the back. It’s affected four different gardens.

 “I can’t believe the driver got out. I told him to stay where he was but he went down the back and jumped over the fence into a field.

“For him just to walk off and not care if he had hurt anybody is disgusting.”

After the crash neighbours and people playing in a park across the road came running over.

Miss Ward was told the car was racing another Volkswagen Golf along Lowe Street before losing control on the roundabout and veering off the road into wall.

She reported that drivers are often seen speeding along the roads in the estate and now wants bollards put up long Pilkington Road to prevent a crash from happening again.

Margaret Dawson, aged 56, lives in the upstairs flat with her husband Geoff, aged 55, and 25-year-old son Christopher.

She was out with Christopher at the time of the crash but believes if everyone was home the situation could have been much worse.

She adds: “We normally park our cars out front and there’s always kids out playing.

“We were very lucky no one was hit.

“My husband was upstairs and hard the crash. If it had hit the house wall the whole side could have come down.”

Police said they were called just after 8pm and believe another black golf was involved in the incident which drove off towards Unsworth Street.

Anyone with information is asked to call 101.