Crashing lorry 'sounded like a bomb'

Rodney Edwards • Published 13 May 2010 10:14 2 Comments

See also:

"IT sounded like a bomb, we thought somebody had been killed."

One young family had a lucky escape on Monday when a 40 foot articulated lorry carrying logs crashed into the side of their Enniskillen home.

Just before six in the morning, the family, who prefer not to be named, were woken up by a "deafening bang" outside. Little did they know what they were about to find.

A lorry had smashed into their home and garden on the Chanterhill Road. It crashed into the side of their house, destroyed their entire hedge, wrecked the family car and pushed a telegraph pole up against their kitchen window.

The father, a local businessman, couldn't believe his eyes: "It was a shock. I came out and the lorry was just tipped up on the corner, we were sure someone was killed."

The driver was just as lucky, he crawled out of the wreckage and escaped with minor injuries, but it could have been so much worse.

"The driver climbed out of the side of the lorry and I was glad to see him. He took the entire hedge away, it was wiped away in a second. The telephone pole was moved. It went from half way along the hedge to up against the gable of the house. That's not where it belongs. The roof of the house is damaged, the walls are cracked and it smashed the window of the kitchen. The whole place was full of logs; all over the garden and up against the car. The car is completely wrecked," he said.

The concerned resident added: "This road is dangerous. We've heard cars flying around that corner before, only nothing like this has happened before. To stop something like this happening, we need a ramp or something here to slow the traffic coming down the hill and vice-versa."

The Drumclay / Chanterhill Road is a notorious problematic road. One worried mother told this newspaper last year how she was "too scared" to use the road to bring her children to school for fear of a serious accident. Pauline Flanagan described the road as "completely disastrous" and called for something to be done before somebody was "killed."

Independent Councillor Bernice Swift shares Mrs. Flanagan's worries. She says she has been contacted by concerned residents in the Coa and Chanterhill area following the accident.

"I am very thankful that this unfortunate accident has not proven fatal for occupants or other road users. However, it has caused terrible damage to the home of the occupants. Other concerned residents have lobbied me on the recall to Road Service for road humps to slow drivers down," she said.

In response, Road Service are to now contact the Roads Traffic Management and the PSNI to discuss the issue.

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter, a spokesperson for the Road Service explained how a crash barrier, a 30 mph speed limit, warning markings, high friction surfacing and a box junction have all been introduced on the Drumclay/Chanterhill Road.

The spokesperson said they would continue to monitor the situation in light of Monday's potentially fatal accident.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 13 May 10

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

Gwyneth Dixon
Unregistered User
May 13, 17:11
Report comment

as the previous resident to this house, my mother for many years campaigned for road humps to be put in place on this corner, we had many cars go through that headge before and this will not be the last. My mum for years and years fought a battle and only managed to get the crash barrier in place, the road service did not believe it to be dangerous enough and said they could not put bumps in as a main road and not residential. Lives have been lost here before and yet lessons have not been learned, what is it going to take? I am sure with the large piece of land adjacent to the house the road could be made wider?

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Shona Morrison
Unregistered User
May 14, 10:09
Report comment

surely if a safety measure is put in place and it saves ONE life, then it's more than worth it.

Speed bumps aren't that hard to put in and this article clearly shows that they are needed.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.