A motorist had a terrifying ordeal in an island village today (Tuesday). He was driving through Lemreway when he tried to negotiate the village’s notoriously tight hairpin bend as he descended from the hillside t-junction.
His vehicle began to slide sideways on the wet narrow road and ended up with part of it overhanging a steep drop down to a house. There was no other traffic about during the late-morning incident and he was stuck precariously positioned on the wet grassy slope with one of his back wheels off the ground and a front wheel over the edge.
He said: “There was nothing I could do. When I tried to reverse, it just slid forward more. The stones under the one front wheel were loose and beginning to crumble. I had to keep the engine running and the footbrake pressed or it would slide forward. I dialled 999 on my mobile but there is no signal down there. I thought I am going to be badly injured very soon when it goes over. I started blowing the horn furiously but no one came.”
That was when he had an idea. He began to tap out the emergency signal S-O-S on his horn. A smart villager eventually realised something was wrong and came to investigate. Another villager in a pick-up truck quickly followed and towed the stricken vehicle to safety in the nick of time.
The relieved motorist, who asked not to be named, said he couldn’t even jump to safety as the van would have plunged forward the second he took his foot off the brake. He had been stuck there for almost half an hour.
He added: “I now hear there have been many other incidents there and nothing has been done to make it safe. Two separate incidents happened the same day, I have been told. Could you ask the readers of your blog who have been involved in incidents at the Lemreway hairpin to make contact with me?”
If you can help the relieved motorist with any information, please call this blog on 01851 720801 or email [email protected] as soon as possible.
What hairpin bend after T junction? I work in Lemreway every day and I can’t picture were this is. Sounds like bad driving to me.
. You narrowly escaped injury but it’s your own fault just like everyone else who came a cropper there. Grow up mr smith.