Call to act after new crunch at cottage
PROPERTY HIT BY HGV – FOR 12th TIME
THE owner of a cottage that keeps getting hit by lorries jumped in his car and chased down the driver of the latest HGV to smash a hole in his house.
Chris Dodsly is facing another expensive repair bill after a 44tonne wagon clipped his property in Upper Hopton, near Mirfield, on Monday morning.
The incident, the 12th in recent years, comes just three months after new weight limits were put in banning any vehicles over 7.5 tonnes.
He is now calling for a blanket ban on HGVs on the roads into Lower Hopton.
The unlucky homeowner has been victim to a spate of damaging incidents since an increase in heavy goods traffic to the area began.
It is thought two industrial parks in the Lower Hopton area are attracting more large vehicles than in previous years. With no way to access them from Mirfield, due to low rail bridges, HGV drivers are forced to tackle narrow, unsuitable roads in semi-rural Upper Hopton.
In a bid to solve the problem, Kirklees Council recently brought in a new 7.5-tonne weight limit on North Gate to try and prevent articulated wagons tackling the nearimpossible turn onto Hopton Lane.
But, at 9.30am on Monday, an HGV belonging to Doncaster firm Polypipe breached the weight limit and was forced to make the left turn down to Lower Hopton.
The driver was unable to make the turn without colliding with a Mercedes car and Mr Dodsly’s home, causing hundreds of pounds of damage. In a video, the car can be seen being shunted forward onto a verge, setting off its alarm.
The Mercedes A-Class belongs to one of Mr Dodsly’s neighbours. They had recently replaced it after having their previous car written off in an incident in May.
Mr Dodsly’s home is still not fully repaired after the Slovakian driver hit his house and then the car.
After hearing the now familiar crunch of the wagon striking his home, Mr Dodsly went outside to find the driver had left the scene.
He got in his car and tracked him down about a mile away at the Hopton Mills industrial park.
When he confronted him, the driver claimed he was unaware of the damage.
And he blamed his sat-nav for guiding him down the illegal route.
Mr Dodsly said because the driver was using a personal satnav, and not a professional logistics one, it didn’t have the information about the new weight limit for heavy goods vehicles.
He said he had reported him to the police for driving without due care and attention and leaving the scene of an accident.
He said: “We were just about there with fixing the house from May and now this. The wall is cracked and we think the windows have moved. Companies should be forced to use smaller vehicles if they want to access Lower Hopton.”
Polypipe has been approached for comment.