16523/3A 21-YEAR-OLD man was killed after the car he was travelling in smashed into the front garden of a farm near Melksham.

Jason Rawlings died after the Ford Mondeo left the road at Redstocks on the A365 at about 1am on Friday, ending up in the garden of a cottage at Vernon's Farm.

Tenants George Bourne and Joan Peake said the stretch of road is notoriously dangerous.

Mr Bourne, 52, said: "I wasn't shocked because I've lived in this area for 40 years and there are always accidents around here.

"The first thing I saw was the car and I thought 'not another one'."

Mr Bourne and Ms Peake, 67, slept through the crash despite police knocking on the front door and a rescue helicopter flying to the scene.

Mr Bourne, who works on the cattle farm, said: "There was a helicopter out there and I didn't even hear it. We sleep at the back of the house. All I heard was a rattle but I thought it was cattle rattling the gates.

"When I got up at 6am, I went into the kitchen and switched the kettle on and thought 'what the hell is that out there?' There were police everywhere."

Ms Peake said: "It really did upset me to think there was somebody in there."

The couple said there had been about four car crashes on the short stretch of road in the past two months

and neighbours constantly have to repair fences and walls which are smashed into.

The Mondeo crashed into a stone wall on the side of the road, before hitting a telegraph pole, colliding with a fence and crushing a fountain in the front garden of the farm cottage, before coming to rest on its side about three metres from the kitchen window.

A second man in the car, who has not been named, was taken to Devizes Hospital by a friend before being transferred to the Royal United Hospital, Bath with lacerations to the back of his head.

He has since left hospital and is helping police with their inquiries.

PC Bob Eccleston, the officer in the case, was unable to confirm which of the men was driving the car.

Friends have left flowers in memory of Mr Rawlings, who was from Devizes, at the scene of the crash.

His parents, who live in West Sussex, have been informed of his death.

Any witnesses should contact PC Eccleston on (01225) 763101.