A St Weonards woman is living on her nerves after a succession of motorists have crashed into her roadside garden.

The problem has got to a point where Carol Randall-Smith, who lives at the village’s former school house, now finds herself waiting for a screech of brakes. No fewer than seven vehicles have swerved off the A446 Hereford to Monmouth road and ploughed through the fence at her home in the past 30 years.

The latest incident involving a car, which left the road and hit the wall of her house, has left Carol fearing for the worst. She has had terrifying brushes in the past. “Once a car came off the road and went over the garden chair I’d just been sitting on,” she said. Mrs Randall-Smith is fearful about having family barbecues in her garden.

“It’s an absolute nightmare,” she said. “I really feel I’ve had enough.”

In the past she has asked for traffic calming measures near her home. “I’ve been told you can’t have sleeping policemen on an ‘A’ road and when I suggested having barriers put there I was told that vehicles would veer off somewhere else.” Despite the introduction of a 30mph speed limit, the mother and grandmother believes it is only a matter of time until someone is killed at this accident spot.

“We were going to have houses built halfway down the hill in St Weonards so the road became one-way, and now we have more traffic and cars have just got faster,” she said.

“Since I moved here in the 1980s I’ve had cars and vans, even a tractor in my garden, I’m on tenterhooks all the time.” She plans to mount a petition calling for something to be done. The latest incident resulted in a car hitting the wall, loosening the radiator in her kitchen.

“It obliterated my garden bench, pushing it against the wall,” Mrs Randall-Smith said. “I am a bit scared now, worried about being in the house. If a car can do that much damage, it doesn’t bear thinking what an articulated lorry could do.

“There’s definitely going to be a fatality there one day.”

Parish council chairman, Mike Cain, said: "The speed limit in that part of the village is already 30mph and it is difficult to slow down speeding drivers who choose to break the law."

However, he said that developers who are considering building homes in St Weonards are investigating whether the 30mph speed limit could be extended to cover a longer section of the A466 through the village.

Cllr Cain added that speed bumps cannot be installed as it is an A-road. A Speed Indication Display is shared between a number of villages and St Weonards has it on display for one month of the year.