Paul and Louise Daley were watching television in their lounge when disaster struck.
Police say an alleged drink-driver failed to take a left-hand turn on to Orwell St from Humber St, smashing through a bedroom and coming to rest in the lounge at about 8.30pm on Saturday.
''There was a bang and I actually thought it was an earthquake, but the ground didn't rumble,'' Mrs Daley said.
''I didn't get the opportunity to even think about what was happening.''
With broken ribs, a burnt hand from impact with the fireplace, and scrapes down her body, Mrs Daley clambered over furniture, scattered belongings and broken glass to get out the back door and ring 111.
''It's unbelievable, the devastation,'' Mrs Daley said.
''I didn't even know what had happened ... after I realised it wasn't an earthquake, I thought it was a train that had come off at the crossing.''
Only 20 minutes before the crash, their 16-year-old grandson Darcy Nash had been lying on his bed in the front room. He had left the house to visit friends.
''The car landed right on his bed and threw the bed into the next wall [of the living room].''
Police said the driver, who escaped uninjured, was processed for drink-driving, recording an alleged breath-alcohol level of 950mcg.
For 16-year-old Darcy, it was another close call.
Earlier this year, Darcy was walking out the gate of his mother's house on the corner of Don and Thames Sts in Oamaru when as a car crashed within metres of him.
''He's absolutely mortified,'' his grandmother said.
Highway Patrol Sergeant Peter Muldrew said it was the fourth crash he had attended at the house in his 17-year career with the Oamaru police.
Where a corrugated iron fence stands, there used to be a brick wall which had stopped two cars, Sgt Muldrew said.
Another time, a vehicle had hit the house but had not caused damage to the extent of Saturday night's crash, where the vehicle tore through 5m of the house.
Sgt Muldrew said it was an unlucky T intersection. The driver and the Daley family were ''very, very lucky'' to be alive.
A sign, indicating the left-turn on to Orwell St, was smashed in two - with one half flying through the window of Mr and Mrs Daley's bedroom, shattering glass all over their bed.
Mr and Mrs Daley have owned the Orwell St house for about three years.
Mrs Daley had been aware of one incident where a car had crashed through the fence and came to rest in the front yard, before they bought the house.
Among items destroyed in the crash were electronic equipment, china, clothes and a television.
''Mainly I'm just grateful that no-one was killed,'' she said.
''I just think that young people just need to be aware that drink-driving not only kills people, but of the devastation it leaves behind for those that it doesn't kill.''
Mrs Daley did not see the driver of the vehicle and ''it's probably just as well I didn't'', she said.
Sergeant Tony Woodbridge, of Oamaru, said the 22-year-old driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle which became airborne before smashing through the house.
Several other windows around the house smashed on the impact, and there appeared to be several cracks in the foundations.
The driver has been charged with drink-driving, and police say more charges are likely.
Sgt Woodbridge said it was ''shocking'' to see a breath-alcohol reading allegedly more than double the legal limit.
''It's not good enough,'' he said.
