A pensioner says he is too scared to go into his back garden after a van ploughed through his fence and ripped through hedgerows.

John Ryan, of Mulberry Close, Hempstead, says he wants more safety measures in Hempstead Valley Drive - which his garden backs onto - before somebody gets killed.

He and his wife Sue were having a quiet Sunday night in, until the crash happened.

Mr Ryan said: “We heard an almighty bang.

“I ran to get my shoes on and my wife saw these lights shining through our hedge.

“Turns out a van came down Hempstead Valley Drive and slid across the road into a lamppost.

“It rebounded off the lamppost, flipped upside down, went across the grassy verge, flattened our fence and smashed through our shrubs.

“The garden was in pieces.”

Mr Ryan ran round the back of his house, to find the driver had managed to get out of the van.

He said: “The guy managed to kick open the window and jump out.

“He was taken to hospital by ambulance and obviously he was really shaken up.”

Police say no injuries were reported.

The devastation sparked Mr and Mrs Ryan’s concern for people’s safety, especially as the road is a popular public footpath to Hempstead Valley shopping centre.

Mr Ryan said: “It is lucky the shops shut early on a Sunday.

“If they hadn’t, and there were people walking along the road when the van crashed, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.

“I’m scared to go in my own back garden now.

“I can easily spend two or three hours doing my shrubs which are up against the fence - and that would have been me.

“Our neighbours have a sandpit for their children right next to the fence. There needs to be a safety barrier.

“Something needs to be done soon. We can’t just wait until somebody gets killed.”

Mr and Mrs Ryan have contacted ward councillor Rodney Chambers to resolve the problem.

Cllr Chambers said he had this week asked police to send the council’s road safety team an incident report so the situation can be reviewed.

Cllr Chambers (Con) said: “Protection could be anything from the harsh steel barriers you see on the motorway, to bollards put along the road in quite close proximity.

“We had a lot of concerns about speeding cars on Hempstead Valley Drive, so I successfully campaigned for speed humps.”

He added: “Rest assured something will be done to improve safety on the road, but first we need the police report to assess the problem.”