North Yorkshire Police have confirmed that a driver crashed his car into a large excavation hole as a result of a medical condition.
A red BMW ended up in a large hole being excavated on West Park Street, next to the Prince of Wales roundabout, on the afternoon of 7 June 2017.
The man was described as very poorly at the time, but is now stable and should hopefully make a full recovery. There will not be any prosecution resulting from the incident as it was beyond the drivers control.
There was comment on social media that the incident was the result of road rage – that is incorrect.
At the time of the crash there was a workman in the hole. The car just touched him but didn’t injure him as it was prevented from dropping further by a pipe in the trench.
Traffic Sergeant Andrew Morton described him having “one of the luckiest escapes I have he had come across”
If the workman had been stood up rather than bent down working or had there not been a water pipe the consequences would have been very different for him indeed.
As the hole also contained a pipe with main water supply for around 8,000 Harrogate residents, along with live electric cables, the recovery operation was very challenging. The trench had to be declared safe before the car could lifted by crane.
The Harrogate Informer apologies for the insensitive nature of the title of the original news item, it was very misjudged.
