Ipswich mum reveals traumatic details of alleged drink driver crash into home

After a driver allegedly ploughed into a Brassall home while under the influence of alcohol in the early hours of the morning, its residents — a single mum and her four-year-old son — were given 24 hours to relocate.

A young Ipswich mum is grappling with trauma and the burden of having to find a new home in an impossibly tight rental market after a driver allegedly ploughed into her front bedroom in the early hours of the morning while under the influence of alcohol.

Brassall resident Samantha Hartwig said she was asleep in her bedroom at the back of her home on January 23 when, at 2.30am, she woke to a “big bang”.

She said her mother had come to visit from Rockhampton and was staying in the bedroom by the front door when disaster struck.

“The whole house shook,” Ms Hartwig said.

“I heard my mum screaming for me and I ran down the hallway.

“There was broken glass all over her.”

Ipswich mum Samantha Hartwig woke to the sound of a "big bang" in the early hours of Sunday January 23, when a drunk driver allegedly crashed into her home. Pictures: Supplied

Ms Hartwig said she and her mother ran outside to find a car had driven through her garden and into the front of her house.

“It was smoking — the car — and water was going everywhere,” Ms Hartwig said.

“Being woken up to something like that ... it’s not an experience I ever want to live again.”

Police, fire trucks, ambulances, and a tow truck arrived promptly, and a 20-year-old man was arrested and charged with drink driving.

Thankfully, Ms Hartwig’s four-year-old son was not home at the time.

Ms Hartwig said her mother’s bed was up against the wall the car crashed into. Picture: Supplied

Ms Hartwig said there were a number of burst water pipes so the property was deemed “unliveable” and she was afforded 24 hours to find a new home.

She created a GoFundMe to help her relocate.

“I have been given a notice to vacate my home immediately which allows me 24 hours. And I have nowhere else to go,” she wrote.

“I have been applying for houses but they need two weeks’ rent and bond which I don’t have as I was not expecting this mess to happen.”

The home’s front bedroom had “come off the foundation” after the crash. Picture: Supplied

Since the incident, Ms Hartwig said her house has been deemed “liveable” as plumbers were able to temporarily fix water supply issues and the front of her house was boarded up and covered in a sheet.

“We’re not allowed down that end of the house, into that room,” she said.

She said that although her real estate agency had allowed her to continue living at her Brassall home of 2.5 years, mentally she needed to get out.

“It doesn’t feel like my home. Doesn’t feel safe anymore,” she said.

Glass shattered over Ms Hartwig’s mother while she slept. Picture: Supplied

Ms Hartwig said her mother suffered cuts from the glass shattering over her, and a jarred back from jumping out of bed so quickly, but that was nowhere near the extent of the impact on them both.

“Night times are the worst,” she said.

“We’re both struggling with sleep.

“Every time I close my eyes I hear the crash all over again – same with my mum. We just keep replaying it.”

The young man charged over the incident will appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court on March 31.