Gwenda Halstead (54) was sitting in her favourite chair at 3.50pm watching a game of rugby on television when a blue sedan crashed through the front fence of her Glen Rd home and into the lounge wall behind her - launching her into the air and across the room.
"I didn't see anything ... just `bam' and I was over here," she said pointing to the opposite wall where her chair and coffee table lay.
That same wooden table was where her grandson Ngapeta Noomotu had been sitting eating chips just moments before.
"I hate to think what could have happened," she said.
Mrs Halstead, who suffers from high blood pressure, said she was bruised and shaken but was otherwise "OK".
"I wasn't planning on remodelling," she said.
The 31-year-old driver and sole occupant of the car told her there was a problem with the accelerator as he turned the corner into Glen Rd.
While Mrs Halstead was the only one in the lounge at the time, family friend Justin Burke (22) watched in horror from the hallway as the car headed straight for the house, hit the curb at speed then crashed through the wooden fence, "smacking" into the lounge.
"It was freaky," he said.
Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken, of Dunedin, said police would investigate whether a mechanical fault or user error was to blame.
"It is fair to say she has had a very lucky escape."
