A RETIRED teacher has been left “shaken” after a tyre came off a lorry and hit his car during an early morning drive along the Irvinestown road last Thursday.
Ken Dennison, who lives outside Enniskillen, was driving in his white Toyota Auris towards Trory Roundabout when he spotted the tyre coming “bouncing across the road” towards him.
“I swerved to try to get onto the grass, I managed to move over a little bit and the wheel hit the side of the car,” he told The Impartial Reporter.
Mr. Dennison says his car which is six months old now needs two new doors and a back panel.
“If I hadn’t bothered trying to swerve it would have probably hit the front of the car and maybe gone through the windscreen. I knew straight away it was going to hit the car, that’s why I tried to swerve, it could have been a lot worse.
“It was one of those heavy duty tyres, it would take a couple of men to lift it. The guy behind me he got hit as well, he got his left wing knocked off,” he recalled.
Due to the shock of what had happened Mr. Dennison said he was unable to get the registration plate, or even the colour of the lorry.
“I stopped immediately and put the emergency lights on, I was shaken, I was shocked. Thinking about it now I realise how lucky I was, I am still a bit shook up.
Yesterday (Wednesday) Mr. Dennison said police have told him that they believe they have located the lorry.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said officers received a report of a damage only road traffic collision at Trory Roundabout.
“It was reported that a wheel had come off a Scania lorry and collided with another vehicle. There were no reports of any injuries, and there were no passengers on board the other vehicle at the time,” she said.
Mr. Dennison says he has “never seen a wheel come off a vehicle while travelling before.”
“I guess in a sort of way it was a freak accident,” he said.