A POLICE car smashed through a garden wall reducing it to rubble after colliding head-on with another car.
Residents reported hearing a loud "bang" and a "crunching" after the crash last night on Barnsley Road at its junctions with Deerlands Avenue and Hartleybrook Road in Sheffield Lane Top.
The driver of the other car, named locally as Andy Smith, was taken to the Northern General Hospital with whiplash following the smash at around 7.15pm.
His discarded vehicle - a Citroen Xsara - remained in the road last night with its front end entirely crushed.
Police cars and fire engines rushed to the scene and officers were put in place to direct traffic around the scattered debris.
The impact of the collision is thought to have spun the police car into the garden wall of a house on the corner of Barnsley Road.
South Yorkshire Police said the police car was "responding to an immediate incident" at the time of the collision, meaning its lights and sirens were in use.
The marked Ford Focus was travelling from Ecclesfield towards Sheffield Lane Top and the other car was travelling along Deerlands Avenue, towards Hartleybrook Road.
The police driver, aged in his 40s, escaped unharmed.
Home owner Tracy Thompson said: "I didn't even hear it myself, I wasn't here.
"My neighbour told me how they heard a noise and looked out to see everyone else doing the same and a police car on my front lawn."
One eye witness said: "All of a sudden there were police cars and sirens everywhere and we could see a police car buried in a brick wall.
"The other car was stranded in the middle of the road all smashed up and the driver was taken to hospital with his legs wrapped up.
"The police have spoken to me and taken all my details," said Tracy.
"They have promised to fix the wall and clean up the garden but they can't move the cars straight away so I don't know when that will be."
Residents and drinkers from the Phoenix Social Club, on the opposite side of Barnsley Road, gathered on the street to watch the aftermath of the smash. Some began heckling officers who were directing the traffic away from the scene.
Witnesses should call 0114 2202970.
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