BY IAN CROUCH
Lake Macquarie Police have been kept busy overnight with three serous crashes in the region.
Just after 8.30pm on Tuesday, a Holden Rodeo left Violet Town Road at Tingira Heights, crashing down an embankment, through a fence and coming to rest beside a large tree in the front yard of a home.
The occupants raced outside to find a man sitting in the driver's seat moments before he ran off.
Meanwhile, a woman in her mid 20's had to be freed from her overturned Nissan X-Trail after it was struck by a Hyundai I-Max on the Myall Road and Newcastle Street roundabout at Cardiff just before 9.30pm.
The woman was taken to the John Hunter Hospital with minor injuries.
Police say it's likely the young man driving the Hyundai will be issued a ticket for negligent driving.
And, a 28-year-old Holmesville man is due to face court next month accused of high range drink driving and other traffic offences after a crash at West Wallsend.
It's alleged the man was doing burnouts in a white Ford Falcon on Steam Close just before 10.30pm when he lost control and crashed through a fence into the front yard of a home.
No-one was injured.
