Driver smashes car into gravestones at cemetery

An allegedly drunk Sydney driver has escaped a brush with death, after crashing his Mercedes into a cemetery at South Coogee overnight.

The vehicle was travelling east along Arden Street at around 2.30am, when the driver lost control at a roundabout, and ploughed straight through a solid concrete wall at Randwick Cemetery.

The car landed upside down, with the force of the crash reducing several tombstones to rubble.

The driver, aged in his 40s, had to be cut free from the wreckage and suffered facial and abdominal injuries.

Police allege he returned a positive reading when breath tested at the scene, and he will undergo further mandatory tests at St Vincent’s Hospital.

At least four gravestones, some dated from the 1920s, have been significantly damaged. It’s not known if relatives of those buried here have been contacted.

The car will need to be towed from the scene, before restoration crews can begin to repair the gravestones.

Onlookers described the incident as “crazy”.

“To get that far into the (cemetery)…they must have been going well over the speed limit,” local man Jayson told the TODAY Show.

“Either that or they’re not local, and don’t know the round-abouts here.”