The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Lucky escape for mum and daughter as wall collapses
broughty: The council had been warned about the condition of the wall
A Broughty Ferry mother and her daughter narrowly missed being crushed as a 12ft wall collapsed yesterday.
A 60ft section of wall came crashing down moments after Karen Arensbach and her three-year-old daughter Helena had driven past.
Dundee City Council is responsible for maintaining the wall and the grass above it, although the surrounding properties and land are privately owned.
It is understood the council had twice before put sensors on the wall dividing properties on Ellieslea Road and Dundee Road, but they had been removed after they showed no signs of movement in the ground.
However, the wall finally collapsed at 8am, with tonnes of rubble cascading down.
The force of the large stones crushed a parked car and shunted it into a garage door.
Mrs Arensbach, 43, had driven past the wall just before it came down.
She said: “I took my husband down to the train station about 7.30am, came back and took my daughter to nursery and came back.
“About five minutes later one of my neighbours said the wall had fallen down.”
Karen said the wall had been bulging for months but Dundee City Council had not taken any action to address the issue, despite warnings from residents.
She said: “We have to take our wheelie bins down the path and we’ve all said to do it on the other side of the road.
“It wouldn’t have mattered where you were though.
“If I had come back a couple of minutes later it wouldn’t have mattered if I was in car. I would have been flattened.”
Neighbour Brian Cairns, 70, said: “That’s been a disaster waiting to happen.
“The wall has had a bulge for a long time. It’s always been something on our minds.”
Mr Cairns said trees had recently been removed from the land behind the wall.
Another resident, Chris Hampton, who runs Hampton Preservation and Maintenance Services, said he had warned Dundee City Council about the wall.
He said: “The wall was about 12ft high and had been buckling. They removed some trees and I said it could mean water would just run straight through to the wall.”
The owner of the damaged car declined to speak to The Courier.
A Dundee City Council spokesman said yesterday: “The area has been fenced off and we are clearing the rubble and looking at long-term options for the area.”