They say a man’s home is his castle, but for Geoffrey North it’s his boat that is king.
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Called 4 Play, the vessel was to accompany Mr North and his wife Roz on their annual Queensland pilgrimage next month.
But now 4 Play is wrecked, along with the couple’s car and garage.
All were badly damaged when a car ploughed into the North’s Robyn Road property Friday night, in a confounding accident that ultimately claimed seven vehicles and two properties.
The Albion Park Rail grandparents were watching television in their lounge room about 8.30pm when they heard a loud bang outside and saw the car of their 78-year-old neighbour, Frank, in their driveway.
"I stuck my head out the window and saw sparks," Mr North said.
"Poor old Frank must have had a turn.
“At least no one got hurt.”
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident.
According to witnesses, a man was attempting to drive his Mitsubishi Pajero 4WD into his garage, directly opposite the North’s.
The 4WD has accelerated and crashed through the rear brick wall of the garage, into a boat on a trailer.
With the trailer lodged to the front of his car, the man reversed into the North’s driveway, taking out 4 Play and the couple’s Toyota Hilux. The impact caused their garage to collapse on top of 4 Play and a camper trailer.
The man has then accelerated forward onto Robyn Road, colliding with a Proton sedan and a Hyundai sedan.
The boat trailer became lodged into the Hyundai on impact.
The Mitsubishi came to a stop about 200 metres away.
Emergency services attended. The driver of the Mitsubishi was taken to Wollongong Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
He underwent mandatory blood and urine testing and was expected to return home on Saturday.
A crime scene was established and investigations into the accident are continuing.
Police have asked witnesses to the accident to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Originally published as Geoffrey’s boat written off in car park chaos by Illawarra Mercury.