A John Hughes resident is lucky to be alive after problems with the brakes on his truck reportedly caused the vehicle to spin out of control and flip over several times, taking out a fence and barely missing a wooden home in the process.
Samuel James, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was nursing minor injuries at Mount St John’s Medical Centre up to press time.
Witnesses said James was able to jump from his fully loaded truck at the last minute and into a ditch just in the nick of time, and thereby avoided being crushed within with the driver’s compartment.
He sustained no major external injuries and was conscious when the emergency medical services arrived, according to nearby residents.
James had just filled the truck with a load of stones at Buckley’s Quarry and was travelling north when he lost control of the vehicle as he was negotiating a sharp turn on Rose Hill, at the top of Buckley’s Line, around 10 am.
The vehicle continued to roll, severely damaging the fence of a nearby residence and scattering stones across the lawn in the process.
The residents of the Buckley’s Line home were not in at the time of the accident but returned shortly after being told about the incident.
A backhoe was used to remove the truck, C10307, from the scene.
