‘Bad smash was bound to happen’

By Joel de Woolfson

‘UTTERLY SHOCKING’ is how retired Melvin King described the incident in which a 10-wheeler lorry ended up straddling his garden wall. Mr King has lived at La Marotte, Les Bas Courtils Road, next to the junction with Delancey Lane, for 21 years.

He said he had been expecting a major crash to occur on his doorstep since he moved there.

‘The way the traffic is along here, we have always thought it was just a question of time.’

‘We have seen so many near accidents along here. We have often thought that someone would crash into the wall at some point.

‘So many people walk along here as well. There are lots of children and people pushing prams so the only saving grace was that there was no one there at the time of the crash.’

Mr King said he was boiling the kettle in his kitchen when he heard the crash.

‘I saw the lorry and realised it was not in the road but in our garden,’ he said.

‘I went to the window and could see immediately everything I needed to see, which was that the wall and the hedge had been completely demolished.

‘It’s maddening, but it’s just one of those things we have to live with.’