This van driver had a miraculous escape after a huge tree branch crashed through his windscreen as he drove along at 30mph – missing his seat by two inches.
The quarter tonne branch was bought down in 60mph winds, smashing into the Ford Transit driven by a man in his 60s and toppling a nearby lamp post.
Witnesses to the smash in Newmarket, Suffolk, said the driver had been very fortunate to escape unharmed, as the branch speared into the rear of the cab behind his seat.
One onlooker, who did not wish to be named, said: ”He was very lucky. It’s also lucky he did not have a passenger because the branch smashed through that side of the windscreen.”
The driver was taken by ambulance to West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, for minor head injuries shortly after the crash at 10am on Thursday.
Police closed the road for two hours after the incident, as contractors removed the tree and the fallen street lamp.
A spokesman at Suffolk County Council’s west area highways office said there had been multiple reports of trees falling over in the winds.
He said: ”Clearly we are experiencing unseasonably high winds which have needed us to respond to four incidents of reported tree damage.
”In each occasion we have been able to attend and work with the police to keep the road safe and remove the obstruction.”
