A TARPORLEY doctor said she had a miraculous escape after an articulated lorry loaded with potatoes fell on her car crushing it around her and trapping her inside.
Jackie Griffin, of Peckforton said she has been left angry and her family traumatised by the ordeal – made worse after the lorry driver was fined ‘just’ £100 with three penalty points.
The driver, Peter Wellington Whalley, 66, of Macclesfield, had denied driving without due care and attention.
The crash happened on September 12 last year when she was travelling along the A49 road toward Tarporley with her 19-year-old son Oliver
As she was approaching the railway bridge at Beeston she saw an articulated lorry tilting as it came around the bend. She didn’t think it would fall, but as it went past it toppled on top of her.
Jackie said: “It seemed obvious that he was going too fast. Anyone would make that assumption if they saw a lorry coming round a bend tilting at such a dangerous angle.”
The lorry landed on the car crumpling it around her leaving her trapped in the wreckage.
She said: “After seeing the photos it does seem miraculous we survived it. I thought I was OK. I could move my legs, but there was no way out.”
Oliver was able to scramble out, over a huge pile of potatoes and go for help.
Jackie thought she had emerged relatively unscathed from the crash with only cuts and bruises, but later discovered she had a crushed vertebrae.
Court case – page 6.
