Lucky escape as dustcart and 4x4 collide

TWO dustmen and a car driver had an incredible escape today after the stationary 13-tonne bin lorry was involved in a collision with a car.

The crash closed the A1071 at Boxford, between Hadleigh and Sudbury, at 8am today as a pool of red hydraulic oil leaking from the dustcart's crusher spread across the tarmac. The grill and parts of the bumper from the Mitsubishi four wheel drive car flew past the front of the dustcart during the impact at its rear.

The two-man dustcart crew, who work for Cleanaway, employed by Babergh District Council, declined to be named but were today thanking their lucky stars that they escaped with their lives.

The driver said: "I was sitting at the wheel, about to take the handbrake off and move off when it happened. The impact moved me six inches along the road – and this is a 13-ton truck.

"The back wheels of the car must have lifted up in the air, and it swung round across the road. If it had been a smaller car I think they would have had it."

He said the dustcart had probably been totally wrecked by the accident.

His colleague, who had been emptying bins at the back of the truck just seconds earlier, said: "Twenty or 30 seconds earlier and it would have ploughed into the back of me while I was there. Luckily I was across the road when I heard the bang."

The driver of the Mitsubishi, who had been travelling to work at the time, said only: "I am just glad that nobody was seriously hurt. It could have been a lot worse but that doesn't seem like much consolation at the moment."

His male passenger was taken to Ipswich Hospital by ambulance for a check up, but was not believed to have been seriously injured.

Police at the scene called highways officers to clear up the debris and the oil spill which was expected to take several hours. The road remained closed at 10am with traffic having to turn back, including several school buses which meant parents had to be summonsed to come and collect the youngsters.