A family had a lucky escape when their 4x4 Shogun stopped a car from ploughing into their front room as they sat watching TV.

Steve McRae's two cars were badly damaged when the Ford Granada came within few feet of smashing into the room where his wife Deborah and his children Stuart, 12, and Lisa, 10, were sitting.

The car hit his neighbour's parked car before ploughing into the Shogun, his garden wall and three other vehicles last night.

Calling for traffic calming measures to be installed outside his home in Sompting Road, Worthing, Mr McRae said the car would have ploughed into his front room had his car not been parked outside.

"My wife heard it because she was sitting in the front room with the children watching television but luckily it did not come in."

The damage to both Mr McRae's cars is estimated at £15,000. He said he is "completely gutted" to have lost his cars just before Christmas.

He said: "There have been two major crashes out there in the last couple of months - Sompting Road needs traffic calming."

A man and a woman passenger, who was cut free and taken to hospital with head injuries, were in the Granada.