A Great Dunmow family had a lucky escape when a car careered through the front of their house and into their children’s playroom.

It left mum Kate Flynn, 44, shaken by the chilling thought of what would have happened if the crash had happened hours earlier when her children – Oliver, 14, Hannah, 10, and Erin, nine – had been in the room.

She is helping to launch a safety campaign to slow traffic and said: “It is only a matter of time before ­someone is killed and I do not want it to be one of my children.

“I am just devastated. The impact of what has happened is really ­upsetting. I have been tearful ever since.

“It is just so frightening to think about what could have happened.

“We call that the kids’ lounge because that is where they have their PlayStation and television.

“If it had been a few hours earlier they could have been in there.”

Mrs Flynn and her husband Andrew, 43, of North Street, were woken in the early hours of Saturday by “a horrendous bang”.

The couple rushed downstairs to discover a BMW had crashed through the front of their home after hitting a parked car and a house on the other side of the road.

Mrs Flynn, a teaching assistant at Great Dunmow Primary School, said: “I have never heard a noise like it before – I imagine it is what a bomb would sound like.

“We looked outside the window and I thought the car had crashed into the neighbour’s house. I never thought it was ours.”

The couple, who have lived there for nearly four years, spent more than three hours clearing up and are waiting to find out the extent of the damage.

Mrs Flynn, along with her neighbours, is planning to campaign for change on the road to stop speeding drivers, which has been an ongoing problem in North Street.

She said: “It is only a matter of time before someone is killed.”

• A 22-year-old Dunmow man was arrested on Saturday morning on suspicion of drink-driving, possession of a Class A drug and assault with intent to resist arrest. He was taken to Braintree police station and later released on police bail pending further inquiries to report back on November 1.