A WOMAN who could have been killed when a potato lorry toppled on her car at Beeston said HGV drivers need to realise the danger and the damage their vehicles can cause.
Dr Jackie Griffin, of Peckforton Hall Lane, Peckforton, miraculously survived a crash which saw her car crushed under a potato lorry on the A49 Whitchurch road at the Beeston railway bridge last September.
The driver, Peter Wellington Whalley, of Armitt Street, Macclesfield, was found guilty of driving without due care and attention. He was fined £100 and given three points on his licence.
Jackie said: “In my opinion he was driving dangerously because he was going too fast around the corner. HGV drivers do need to take care because the country roads are not designed for these vehicles.”
She said: “I just think they forget they are driving such a large vehicle, and I don’t think they realise the damage a lorry that size can do.”
The verdict comes as six members of the same family were killed when a lorry ploughed into a slow queue of traffic on the M6.
Jackie recorded the number of incidents involving lorries on that stretch of road in the month following her crash.
She said: “Lorries were going through the bridge when they were too tall and getting stuck. Others were having to turn around because there is not enough space and some were just going too fast.”
Only the week before Jackie’s crash a carrot lorry had overturned at Cotebrook, killing the driver and leaving tonnes of carrots strewn across the road.
Jackie said the speed limit on that stretch of the A49 needs to be reduced and more signs need to be put up indicating the junction coming up, the bridge and the bend.
PC Joe Pool, who dealt with Jackie’s case said: “Generally HGV drivers are very good and know the limits of their vehicles.”
“I think maybe sometimes when they have done a route repeatedly they can become a bit complacent. In Peter Wellington Whalley's case he had driven that lorry around there many times.”
