A lucky escape for tree fall motorist
AN ELDERLY lady who watched in horror as a large tree came crashing down onto her car has thanked those who came to her aid.
Sheila Collins, 78, was driving along Mauldeth Road, in Heaton Mersey, when a large branch from the 100ft tree landed on her bonnet on Wednesday evening.
Miraculously she was uninjured but knows just a couple of feet difference could have meant a very serious accident.
Now she has thanked a man and woman who came to help her, calling 999 and waiting with her until paramedics arrived.
She is also grateful to the man whose garden the tree was in as he has offered to pay for the damage to her bonnet.
Sheila, of Heaton Mersey, said: “I was very lucky, it was a big branch from a 100ft tree, if someone was walking on the pavement they could have been killed.
“I was shaking after it happened. Everyone was so kind, a young lady came to me and asked if I was alright and rang an ambulance.
“And one man stayed with me until paramedics arrived. The owner of the tree came out and was very kind, I’d like to thank them all.”
Sheila had been visiting her daughter and was returning home when the accident happened around 7pm.
Passers-by teamed up to help shift the tree off the bonnet of her Ford Focus.
Sheila said: “My car has been as good as gold so I love it and will have it repaired.
“I’ve got a photo of what happened and when people see it they say, ‘oh wow’ and can’t believe it.”
A spokesman for North West Ambulance Service confirmed the call out and said the woman had not been seriously injured.
She was given first aid but did not need hospital treatment.
Police were also called to help deal with traffic problems caused.
Gardeners Steven O’Donnell and Gaz Upton, who had also been passing, used their chainsaws to chop up the tree so it could be removed.
Steven, 35, said: “It was a diseased tree and over a period of time it has decayed and then given way.
“I’d finished for the day and had just rung home to ask for the tea to be put on.
“As excuses for being late go it was a good one and it was accepted. I got my tea heated up later.”