Tripping the light (not so) fantastic: Tangled lorry pulls down three 30ft lampposts at Whitstable garage
Boss Richard Miller
surveys the damage at Whitstable's Harbour garage
by Lauren
Fruen
Thousands of pounds of damage,
three 30ft lampposts sent crashing to the ground and a £10,000 car
crushed – and all because of the festive efforts of one Whitstable
garage.
The costly chaos began when a large
lorry delivering parts became tangled up in the Christmas lights at
Harbour garage in Tower Parade.
The lights, and the metal posts
they were attached to, were ripped down as the lorry drove away
from the garage - sending them crashing into the busy road and path
below.
Miraculously, no one was injured in
the accident on Friday afternoon - but witnesses said passers by
had a lucky escape.
"If anybody had been walking past I think they would have been killed..." – Richard Miller
Garage group director Richard Miller
said: "If anybody had been walking past I think they would have
been killed.
"The lorry came and unloaded the parts
and then raced out of the garage. Unfortunately we had our
Christmas lights up and the lorry got caught in them, pulling down
three lampposts they were attached to as he drove away.
"The driver didn't even know he had
done it. Someone flagged him down and stopped him otherwise he
would have been driving off down the road with a lamppost attached
to the lorry."
Each post cost the garage around
£1,000 and a £10,000 car was also damaged as one of the posts
fell.
Mr Miller added: "One post fell into
the road, one fell on top of a car and the other fell on the path.
It was very lucky nobody was hurt.
"I would say the total damage done
would be around £4,000, but things can be repaired. The main
thing is that nobody was hurt.
"We were actually going to take the
lights down the day before – I wish we had now. It was certainly an
expensive way to take down the lights, but at least no one has to
go up a ladder now to get them!"
06/01/13
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