Oh the irony!
Safety-conscious driver pulls over to use phone... and a tree falls on his van
AS law-abiding citizens we like to think we won’t be punished for doing the right thing.
But when conscientious driver Michael Howarth made sure to pull over before texting his wife, his only reward was having a 50ft tree collapse on his van.
The 62-year-old decorator had not even managed to pull out his phone before he heard a huge bang and was plunged into darkness.
Nearby council workers rushed over to help him escape the crush, fearing they would find him dead. Astonishingly, Mr Howarth managed to clamber out unharmed and his van also survived intact.
Yesterday he said he was lucky his family weren’t ‘calling a funeral director’ after the near-miss in Rochdale on Tuesday afternoon. Had the van been parked a little more to the left, he believes the 18in wide tree trunk would have crashed straight through his windscreen.
‘Honestly, I’m shocked I’m still alive,’ he said from his home in the town. ‘I’ll be buying a lottery ticket tomorrow night, that’s for sure. I parked up on the other side of the road, heard an almighty roar, then I disappeared into darkness.
‘I had been parked there for less than five seconds before the tree fell on top of my van.
‘I didn’t even have time to reach for my phone. The tree was directly on top of the roof.
‘I had to climb out of the door from underneath the branches by forcing it open. I’m just gobsmacked – I can’t believe it. Had anybody been pushing a pram under there or walking past, they’d have been crushed to death immediately. When my wife arrived, I was just in another world for a good five minutes.’
Mr Howarth believes work on a nearby stream may have loosened the ground, causing the tree to collapse in strong winds. It has since been removed.
‘I’m shocked that I’m still alive’