Police have released video footage showing the moment a lorry toppled onto one of their patrol vehicles in strong winds.
Sergeant John Easton from Police Scotland’s Road Policing Unit had a lucky escape when the HGV fell onto his car as he attended an earlier call on the A1 near East Linton.
There were no injuries in the incident, but the road remained closed for the rest of the day.
So, this has been my afternoon. Just shows how dangerous this job can be. The video isn’t pleasant viewing, but the officer sitting in it at the time escaped serious injury. #PickSixNumbers pic.twitter.com/d8ttpWKySI
— Pedro RPU (@PedroRpu) December 10, 2019
Sergeant Easton acknowledged he’d had a lucky escape, but joked that it was his favourite in the fleet of cars.
He said: “When I got to the scene, I jumped out the car, went across to check on the driver from the first lorry to make sure that he was ok, and he was already in another vehicle with one of our support drivers, so I said to them they needed to get off the bridge as it was too dangerous.
“As I struggled trying to get back to my car I had to hold onto the lorry to try and pull myself around. I had to get back into my car to then contact our control room and Traffic Scotland to close the bridge and the road.
“That’s at which point as I was speaking on the radio that the lorry started to fall over onto my car. As it happens, my favourite car in the RPU fleet.
“I took a deep breath, got out, and checked that the driver of the lorry that had hit my vehicle was ok before radioing for more assistance. Colleagues quickly arrived to help at the scene and we closed the road at the bridge.
“It could have been much worse but fortunately I walked away unscathed. I certainly won’t forget why it’s called the ‘Windy Bridge’ now.”
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