A driver whose van was wrecked after being “spun round 180 degrees” in a collision with a police car rushing to deal with an emergency call says he is “lucky to be alive”.
Derek Watson (57) said he was a split second away from being seriously hurt or even killed after the police car collided with the front offside wing of the van, sending it spinning into a metal barrier.
A badly-shaken Mr Watson said he was “a bit stiff and sore” 24 hours after the crash which saw him and two women police officers taken to Ninewells Hospital, then released after treatment for minor injuries.
The handyman said he hadn’t heard any siren and had only caught the blue light from the police car out of the corner of his eye as he went through the green traffic light from Muirton Road on to Logie Street on Saturday afternoon.
“I’m not the sort of person to get involved in the blame culture but I was hardly moving so they must have been going at some rate and I think they should have decelerated. They should know it’s a dangerous junction,” he said. “If it had been a split second later it would have come into the side of the door where I was and you could have been looking at a fatality.
“I’ve been spun round 180 degrees and ended up smashing into the barrier.
“I didn’t realise until I saw the pictures how extensive the damage was. I’ve told the police I thought they were doing about 30 or 40 miles an hour but just think of the momentum that was generated to cause that amount of damage.
“I just feel very lucky to be alive and I’m glad the two police officers are okay too.”
Mike Docking (47), owner of Soul Graffitti on the corner of Loons Road and Logie Street, said although he did not see the accident he could hear a siren just moments before the collision.
“It’s a bad junction. Only a couple of weeks ago we had a young lad knocked down here,” he said.
The force has launched an investigation and a spokesman appealed for any witnesses to the crash or who saw police in the area prior to the collision to contact them on 0300 111 2222.
Photo by David Martin