Sheldrake Drive, one of the busiest roads in the Chantry estate, was closed for around three hours yesterday after a Collier and Catchpole lorry toppled over into a parking lay-by.
No-one was injured in the incident, which took place between the Gannet Road and Dunlin Road junctions at around 10am.
The lorry had been delivering building materials for around 20 minutes before it toppled over and damaged a Smart car, neighbours said.
Neighbours said they were not sure what caused the lorry, which had a crane. to suddenly topple over.
The contents of the lorry, which were around 20 to 30 concrete slabs, fell away from the parked vehicle, a neighbour said.
She said it was fortunate that no one was walking in the immediate area at the time of the accident.
The owner of the damaged Smart car, Daphne Law, 73, of Sheldrake Drive, said she was colouring her hair when she saw the lorry topple over into the lay-by where she had parked her car.
She said she thought her vehicle had escaped sustaining any damage until she went out to investigate.
She said: “It was lucky I wasn’t in it. I was just about to go out and park my car somewhere else as well.”
She said she was shocked by the incident but “not that angry”.
She said she was liaising with Collier and Catchpole, an independent builders’ merchant based in Colchester.
She did not wish to comment further.
One of the neighbours who witnessed the incident said: “When the crane came down, I couldn’t believe it.
“I came out and said ‘what a calamity’. Nobody was hurt. It was lucky that no-one was in the car though. All the concrete slabs blocked the road.”
The road was closed until around 1.15pm while heavy lifting gear was called in to collect the lorry and allow traffic to flow again.
Two separate spokesmen for Collier and Catchpole declined to comment on the incident when approached by this newspaper.
It is understood an investigation is being carried out to establish the cause of the lorry toppling over.
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