Snow plough ploughed straight into a garden

Being in a vehicle that’s a bit larger and weightier than most cars – especially with the tools at the back – I’ve always felt that as a van driver I have to be even more careful than other road users in icy or snowy weather.

However, one snow plough driver didn’t manage to manoeuvre the roads as carefully as he should have while on the job in Balloch, Scotland.

While trying to make the tarmac safer for other motorist, the snow plough slid down a hill and careered into a woman’s front garden and her neighbour’s car.

The lady explained, “I heard a loud bang, and thought, this sounds close. I looked out of the window and there was a snow plough sitting in my garden. It had bashed into my next door neighbour’s car, then through the dividing fence and completely taken out the top half of my garden.

“I could see two shocked men in the plough. They opened the doors, and the driver got out and fell on the ice before they came over.

“It was just me in the house, but they did their best to help and gave me a number to call, reversed the plough and left.”

Luckily the men seem to have been apologetic, and representatives of the Highland Council have since visited the woman’s home to tell her that they will rebuild her garden, however the fate of the damaged car has not been reported on.  

Photo © Will Merydith via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

Life in the slow lane

I came across a great story about a fellow van driver the other day.

A pet shop owner was travelling along the M26 on his way to pick up some tropical fish from Heathrow Airport - as you do - when he spotted a tortoise making its way, slowly, along the slow lane.

The van driver explained, “I was just coming off the M20 and going on to the M26 and it was really quiet, no traffic in front of me and none behind me.

“As I was going along I just caught something out of the corner of my eye and I immediately thought 'tortoise'.”

Since the road behind was quiet, the van driver pulled over to the hard shoulder and waved an oncoming car over into the next lane so that he could safely grab the travelling tortoise off the tarmac.

The man added, “It was lucky really because at that point a stream of HGVs were coming along the road so he would have come out a lot flatter than he is now.

“He got a trip up to Heathrow and back and now he's living with me and has been nicknamed M26.”
What a lucky animal! I suppose it figured it should be in the slow lane, but at a maximum of 0.3mph to its name the slow lane wasn’t quite slow enough.

Photo © ksmahinay via photobucket