A Letchworth woman has described the moment a driver lost control before his car smashed into other parked cars and flipped over as the “scariest thing she has ever heard or seen.”

Tracy Flack saw the terrifying crash in Pixmore Avenue near where she lives at about 5am on Sunday and witnessed a man running away from the scene.

Police believe he may have taken the vehicle without permission.

Tracy was getting ready to leave for work but had to go back inside to fetch her car keys which she had left behind, before setting off.

She told the Comet: “When I got to my car to leave for work realised I didn’t have the car keys on me.

“All I can say is I’m glad I didn’t because if I had driven up there when I was originally going to the car would have ended up on top of me.

“He came flying down the road so quickly and had lost complete control of the car. He hit a blue car that was parked, and he actually ended up driving up it and flipped over.

“Then within minutes he just got out the car and ran off back up in the direction he came. I couldn’t believe it because it looked so bad, I thought we would be dealing with someone who was seriously injured or dead.”

She added: “The bang was absolutely unbelievable. The scariest thing I have ever heard or seen in my life. Seeing it really shook me up, a few seconds more and it would have been me there with him.

“I went straight over to the car to make sure no-one was hurt or trapped inside it. He left the car door open and there was a hoodie and other belongings. He just didn’t seem with it at all.

“After the bang was so loud everybody was looking out of their windows and coming out to see what had happened.” Tracy continued.

“I spoke to the owners of the car, who are an elderly couple. The lady was quite upset about the whole thing. It had been destroyed and is probably a write off as well.”

Tracy said she thinks action needs to be taken to sort our parking congestion on the roads in the area to help prevent similar accidents.

She said: “Parked cars on these roads are an absolute nightmare. Luckily on this occasion they were only on one side, so it could have been a lot worse.

“People are always speeding up and down so it can be quite dangerous. Vehicles are always getting damaged with wing mirrors getting smashed off and things like that.”

The offender had already fled when police arrived at the scene. Officers currently believe that the vehicle had been taken without consent and enquiries are continuing.

Anyone who has any information should call police on 101 quoting crime reference number ISR 165 of October 22.