Sponsored by
Driver fights for life
Horror crash closes road for eight hours
ONE man is fighting for his life and another is seriously injured after a lorry ploughed head on into a house in an horrific car smash.
The driver spent three hours trapped inside the heavy goods vehicle as emergency crews struggled to release him.
Firefighters rushed to free the barely conscious driver of a Vauxhall Omega, which was hit by the 17 tonne lorry before it smashed into the wall. The Sheffield man was taken to hospital with serious head injuries and is currently in Leeds General Infirmary. He spent last night in theatre and remains in a critical condition today with multiple injuries.
Owners of number four Sandbed Villas, Debra and Ewan Haswell, were at home with their two young daughters when the vehicle ploughed into their cellar. They escaped unhurt.
Nearby residents and workers rushed outside after hearing a bang. They were met with a scene of chaos and they tried to help both drivers until the emergency services arrived.
The busy trans-Pennine A646 route between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden was closed all day causing lengthy queues throughout the valley.
Sergeant Andrew Addy, who was leading the police investigation, said they were still trying to establish how the accident happened.
He said they were called to Halifax Road, Eastwood, Todmorden, at 9.17am yesterday.
"There was a Balfour Beatty truck, which was fully loaded, travelling towards Hebden Bridge and a maroon Vauxhall Omega travelling in the opposite direction. We have yet to establish how, but they collided right offside to right offside.
"Because of the weight of the truck there was extensive damage to the Omega.
"Due to the damage caused to the truck it veered off the road and hit a lamp-post and a telegraph pole and then smashed into number four."
The local driver is being treated for a broken pelvis, broken vertebrae at the bottom of his back and a broken leg, at Calderdale Royal Hosp-ital.
Sergeant Addy said the vehicle had been embedded two meters into the cellar.
Station officer Andy Newman, incident commander for West Yorkshire fire service, said the driver of the Omega was cut free by 10.15am but the building where the wagon had crashed was unstable.
They used props to make it safe before they started to free the driver.
After advice from the doctor who, along with paramedics, was treating the man while he was trapped, fire crews took the decision at 11.45pm to remove the wagon while the driver was still inside the vehicle.
"He needed to be out because he had been trapped inside for two and a half hours."
The vehicle was winched out by Stoney-wood Motors. Thirty minutes later, firefighters had cut him free.
Mrs Haswell said her husband had just returned from work minutes before the vehicle ploughed into their home. He went upstairs to the bathroom. Their seven year-old daughter Ailsa was still in bed and five-year-old Niamh was sitting on the couch with her mum.
"I heard a rumbling and then a big bang. The door flew open and the house was filled with smoke and dust.
"I thought my husband and Ailsa were dead. The house was just full of the rubble."
She said they rushed outside and then saw the lorry.
"The driver was still conscious and he was screaming. But there was nothing we could do other than give him a cold flannel and reassure him the emergency services were on their way.
"The girls were screaming, they were hysterical."
She said the wagon had damaged several of her husband's classic bikes which he kept in the cellar and part of the hallway and the vestibule.
Structural engineers and loss adjustors have been at the scene and the family spent last night at a relative's. Today they were continuing to clean up the wreckage.
George Patterson had been working nearby at CVS when he heard a loud bang.
"I went to see the guy in the van but I couldn't do anything.
"I'm a trained first aider and you are told not to move them if they are bleeding."
Nearby resident Paul Baldwin said he had heard the collision.
He cut off the battery supply to the car with the help of an off-duty firefighter until emergency crews arrived.
Police want any witnesses to the accident to call them on 01422 318146.
Email to a friend
Print this page- A58 crash UPDATE: road now re-open after man hit by car earlier this morning
- Crash on the A58 in Halifax this morning UPDATE: Man in hospital with several broken bones
- Taxi worker dies aged 35 after finishing his shift
- Man suffers serious injuries in accident on M62
- How the new Halifax Central Library will look
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Halifax
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Fog
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
