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Gritter horror: “I saw lorry was going to hit me”
A MAN has relived the terrifying moment an out-of-control gritter lorry ploughed into his car before smashing into his elderly mother’s home.
John Calder, 51, was left with three broken ribs and severe bruising to his face and body when the vehicle careered into his Fiat Doblo people carrier in Burwell on Friday, February 10.
Meanwhile, his 75-year-old mother, Ann Calder, described how she was seconds from disaster after watching the gritter smash into her Toyse Lane home from her doorway.
Mr Calder, from Burwell, but currently living with his girlfriend in Vincent Close, Newmarket, was parked on his mother’s drive at around midday when the drama unfolded.
“I was waiting for my mother because she had forgotten to put a coat on,” he told the Journal.
“Suddenly I heard a few bangs and, as I looked round to my left, I saw the lorry was going to hit me.
“The rest is how I ended up like this.”
The lorry smashed into a telephone exchange box before ripping up hedges as it careered through gardens. It also hit a van on another driveway before hitting Mr Calder’s car and, finally, the house.
Mrs Calder, a retired shop assistant, said she was planning to go with her son to the local cemetery to lay flowers on her husband’s grave to mark his birthday.
“I was stood at my inner door when I saw this yellow vehicle coming towards me. Then I remember bricks flying around,” she said.
“Within seconds I would have been stood in the actual porch or in the car with my son.
“Fortunately the lorry hit the passenger door, but that’s where I would have been sat. It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Mr Calder said he originally planned to reverse into his mother’s driveway, meaning he would have taken the full impact of the gritter as it hit his car.
“I thought her drive would be snowy and icy and I was planning on backing into the drive so we could drive out easier but, when I got there, I saw it had been cleared and drove straight in.
“It makes you wonder if someone was looking down on us.”
A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire County Council said a police investigation into the cause of the accident was under way.
“The county council will co-operate with that investigation in every way,” she said.
“At this time it would be inappropriate to speculate on the cause of the accident or comment further.”
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Friday 25 May 2012
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