Man drives his new BMW into neighbour's house

An elderly Oamaru man, not used to a second-hand BMW he had just bought, scraped his fence and then crashed into a neighbour's house yesterday morning.

The Ettrick St house, across the road, was rented by Shannon Park from her parents and she saw the car accelerating across the street, then sliding and hitting her house with a "big bang" about 11.30am.

It punched a hole about half a metre square in the roughcast exterior of the house and into the room's interior lining.

The man suffered a minor abrasion to his head and the other occupant of the car, his wife, was not injured.

Ms Park said her 6-month-old daughter had been sleeping in the room next to the one hit by the car, but she had got her out of bed just before the crash.

Oamaru police are investigating the crash.