Car smashes into property

A car crashed through a fence on Kaitemako Rd in Welcome Bay yesterday. Photo/supplied

A car smashed through a fence and into the backyard of a Welcome Bay home where the owners had been gardening only ten minutes before - leaving shards of the wooden fence embedded in the exterior wall of the home.

A 17-year-old has been charged by police with wreckless driving and would appear in Tauranga District Court on November 21.

Two other youths were spoken to and released, a police spokeswoman said.

The owners, who wished to remain unnamed, were left horrified by the mess left in their backyard after a car coming down Kaitemako Rd crashed through their fence - taking several yukka plants and bushes with it, about 2pm Thursday afternoon.

"Our grandson easily could have been playing in the backyard right where the car landed. It's lucky," the owner said.

Bits of the vehicle's brake were in the rubble and the car's front left tyre ended up down the street while the car itself had landed backwards.

The couple had halted their gardening to pop out to buy a stamp, returning home to see police and neighbours swarming their home.

"We panicked. It was horrible to see," the owner said.

"We lived in South Auckland for 25 years and came to Tauranga for a quiet life."

She said neighbours were walking past saying "again?" because it was the third time a car had crashed through their fence while another had crashed through their neighbour's fence.

They had only moved to Tauranga in August.

"The neighbours are going to get together and try and get the speed limit cut because they reckon [70] is too fast. It should be 50km/h."