Pensioner killed by runaway truck

Man, 86, crushed as lorry rolls into parked cars

A PENSIONER died after being crushed to death by a car which had been struck by a runaway truck yesterday.

The man, named locally as John Woods, 86, was trapped under a black Peugeot after a lorry being used for roadworks, rolled into it.

Mr Woods, a keen walker who lived in the Waterside flat complex in Largs, Ayrshire, was returning home from a visit to the shops when the accident happened at around 11.30am.

The driver of the lorry had jumped out to check Tarmac levels in a nearby machine.

As he walked to the back of the vehicle, it rolled down Waterside Street and careered into the cars parked nearby.

Mr Woods is understood to have moved onto the footpath to avoid the lorry, but was subsequently crushed by the car. Emergency services managed to free him, but he died at the scene.

The accident is the second road tragedy in the area in little more than a month after the deaths of Bob and Rose Simpson, who were knocked down in the town.

Last night locals paid tribute to Mr Woods, who lived alone.

A neighbour, Jim Cochrane, 82, spoke to him just minutes before the accident.

He said: ‘I stopped to speak to him about three minutes before it happened and asked him if he was going to Glasgow. He took the train there two or three times a week. But he said he was just going to the shops to get his newspaper.

‘I keep thinking what if I had kept him talking there for another while. It’s terrible.’

Another neighbour said: ‘He used to walk every day. He would walk with his hands folded behind his back. It was his hobby.’

Mr Woods leaves a sister who also lives in the Waterside complex. Neighbours described her as ‘housebound’.

The road where the accident happened has been closed for a number of days to allow local road resurfacing to take place.

A number of HGVs have been on the narrow street to transport Tarmac a nd ot her materials.

The work was being carried out by Hamilton Tarmac. A spokesman for the organisation said: ‘ The driver was working in the lorry.

‘He had stepped out as he was checking the l evel of Tarmac in another machine.

‘The lorry moved away. Our first concern is for the family of the gentleman. The driver is not taking it very well.’

Police have appealed f or witnesses and a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.

Sergeant Mark McGowan of the force’s road policing complex, said: ‘We believe that an unoccupied HGV rolled down Waterside Street, Largs, and struck a Peugeot 205 which was parked nearby.

‘This resulted in the Peugeot striking the 86-year- old man. Three other parked vehicles were damaged in the impact. No other person was injured.

‘I would appeal to anyone who was in the area of Waterside Street around 11.30am and witnessed the crash to telephone Road Policing at Helen Street on 101.’ Mr and Mrs Simpson, who had been married for 66 years and were aged 87 and 84 respectively, are believed to have been walking to the bus stop for a day out when they were struck by a car as they crossed Greenock Road at the town’s seafront in August.