AN elderly couple and five teenagers are lucky to be alive, after a car smashed into the pensioners' home in Verwood on Sunday night.

The five teenaged men were travelling along Ringwood Road shortly after 10.30pm, when their Ford Escort left the road and ploughed into the bungalow on the corner of The Chase.

Had residents Mr and Mrs A Monk, who did not want to talk about their ordeal, been in their kitchen or hallway at the time, they could have been killed by the impact. No one was seriously hurt but the four car passengers were taken to Poole General Hospital, where they received treatment for minor injuries.

The driver of the car, a 17-year-old from Verwood, was uninjured in the crash.

A police spokesman said: "It appears the five boys, and indeed the elderly couple, had a very lucky escape."

Neighbours spoke of hearing a loud bang and a commotion, as police, paramedics and the fire brigade attended the scene.

Recovery crews worked through the night to clear the debris.

The Escort was being driven south along the 30mph stretch, when it mounted a grass verge alongside the road.

It then cut through a thick conifer hedge in the Monks' garden, before smashing through the wall at the front of the house, which received serious structural damage. There were initial fears that the house might collapse, because supporting walls had been destroyed.

People living nearby say they have called for more action to ensure people stick to the speed limit along what is the main road through the town.

"People go down there much too quickly all the time - you take your life in your hands if you try to cross the road," said one resident.

Councillor Toni Coombs, local member on East Dorset district council, believes the crash points up a growing problem in the town.

She said: "It is becoming a problem in Verwood - boy-racers congregate in the Potter's Wheel car park and appear to have devised a race track around the town's roads.

"I am extremely saddened that this has so quickly led to something so nearly tragic.

"I am getting more and more complaints from residents about these speed kings and I shall be relating my concerns to the local police inspector."

She also said that two new sets of traffic lights would be put in place in the next few months on Ringwood Road, on the junctions of Black Hill and Black Moor Road, at the Verwood end of the industrial estate.