A Shrewsbury bar manager ‘saw his life flash before his eyes’ when he was reversed into twice by a lorry and pinned against a bollard.
Michael Carter, 32, had just finished his shift at The Coach and Horses pub on Swan Hill when a delivery lorry became stuck at the corner of Cross Hill. He went out to alert the driver that his lorry was close to hitting the pub, only for the lorry to roll back and pin him against the bollard.
He said: “Just as I had stepped between the post and the corner of the wagon, the vehicle rolled back. The corner of the vehicle trapped me at the top of my pubic bone and my left bum cheek – I was pinned.
“After that two members of staff ran out because I was banging on the wagon and screaming. They tried to get the driver to move the lorry forward and in the panic he was messing around with the gears and put it in to reverse and squashed me some more.”
Mr Carter, who suffered severe bruising and tissue damage, said the incident, involving a Costa Coffee lorry, on Tuesday, April 7, had lasted for around three minutes. He said: “I’m black and blue and yellow in the pelvic area. I was rushed straight to A & E and spent three hours in hospital. I have to have weekly check-ups with the doctors and they have warned me about potential incontinence because of the compression I suffered on the main artery which feeds the groin and legs.
“My life was flashing before my eyes. We have problems with long vehicles coming up here, which has been going on for the last four years. We’ve been saying time and time again that someone’s going to get hurt and finally someone did.”
Staff member Thomasin Lovesey said: “I thought he was a goner to be honest.”
Bosses at the Coach & Horses have been campaigning for years to stop lorries from using the narrow streets. The pub, which is in a conservation area, has been hit numerous times. A sign advising long vehicles not to travel in the area has since been put up by Shropshire Council at the bottom of St John’s Hill.
A West Mercia Police spokeswoman confirmed they had received reports of a man who had been trapped by a lorry near the pub. She said: “Police attended along with the ambulance service. The man who was a pedestrian was taken to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital by ambulance. He isn’t believed to have been seriously injured. Police are investigating the circumstances.” No one at Costa Coffee was available for comment.