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Driving instructor Darren Willett risks life to prevent Sheppey Crossing crash

A quick-thinking driving instructor may have helped prevent a serious crash on the Sheppey Crossing during the rush hour.

Darren Willett from Minster was hosting a lesson and travelling over the brow of the bridge towards Sittingbourne at about 5pm when a vehicle in front came to a stop.

It was blocked by an object in the road, forcing the driver to pull into the outside lane, a potentially tricky manoeuvre with traffic speeding past.

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Mr Willett stopped the lesson and cleared the ladders off the road
Mr Willett stopped the lesson and cleared the ladders off the road

With the motorist having swerved to avoid the obstacle, Mr Willett, who had already ordered his pupil to slow to a stop, noticed two aluminium roof ladders strewn across the carriageway.

“Other drivers just wanted to carry on. They were swerving to avoid the ladders, and I even saw a lorry drive over them. It was ridiculous” - Darren Willett

The instructor then leapt from his car and threw the ladders - which had fallen from a van roof - and debris to the side of the road before continuing his journey.

Mr Willett, 45, who captured the incident on his dashboard camera, said: “If I didn’t take action, what would’ve happened?

“I just wanted to get the flow of traffic moving because of what happened in 2013 with the 130-car pile-up.

“Other drivers just wanted to carry on. They were swerving to avoid the ladders, and I even saw a lorry drive over them.

“It was ridiculous.”

Dad-of-five Mr Willett from Noreen Avenue, said he took matters into his own hands to avoid unsuspecting motorists hitting a tailback of traffic on the crossing’s blind side.

“There have been a lot of complaints about visibility going over the bridge,” he said.“If drivers, for whatever reason, had been distracted for a second they wouldn’t have seen the ladders laying in the road until very late.

“The situation could’ve been a lot worse, and then we’d have had everyone on the news talking about another bad crash.”

Mr Willett, an instructor for 15 years, who drives up to 12 hours a day, said speed, or lack of it, was the essence in dealing with a carriageway obstruction.

The grandad-of-two, said: “We had no option but to put the hazards on and slow down.

“Because we were following at a safe distance we could see the trouble ahead.

“It helped others understand there was a problem so they began to slow down rather than do anything erratic.”


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