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Taxi driver tells of lucky escape as falling branch crashes into car
train
A TAXI driver had a lucky escape when strong winds caused a tree branch to crash into his car.
Bob Tullet, a driver for Station Taxis, was sat in the taxi rank outside Haywards Heath Railway Station when he felt a massive bang rock the car.
“I thought at first that someone had gone into the back of me but when I got out I saw this massive tree branch,” said Bob. “It damaged the boot and the back of the car. It doesn’t bear thinking about if it had hit the windscreen.”
The incident happened last Wednesday during the horrendous weather which saw the MET office issue severe weather warnings for the county.
Bob said: “It is lucky no one was walking on the pavement at the time as they would have been killed. Those trees are just so dangerous.”
He added that he had spoken to the station manager about the incident and about the trees to ensure something was done about them.
A spokesperson for Southern Railway said: “We have had contractors go out and have a look at the trees. They tidied the bit that fell off and ensured nothing else was going to fall off.
“They are also going to assess the trees to see if we need to do anything with them, be that tendering, reducing the heights or removing them. We aren’t sure yet but we are looking at it and it will be dealt with.”
They added that they were aware of the incident and the cost of the repair would be dealt with through their usual claims procedure.
The car has since been repaired and has been deemed safe to drive by Mid Sussex District Council.
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Weather for Haywards Heath
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
