A pensioner was fortunate to be alive after a load of wooden pallets “stacked higher than a two-storey building” toppled off the back of a lorry as it entered a Fife town.
The 76-year-old woman was walking on the pavement close to the junction of the A91 and Low Road on the west side of Auchtermuchty around 8.45am on Tuesday when she was struck by one of the falling pallets and sustained a hip injury.
The woman, described by police as “conscious and breathing”, was treated by paramedics at the scene and transferred to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
No further information regarding her condition was available.
The heavy pallets blocked a lengthy stretch of the pavement and carriageway just inside the 30mph limit and shortly after a right-hand bend. Some even went over an eight-foot garden wall.
The road remained closed for several hours as police took statements from witnesses. These included the driver of the eastbound lorry from H&R Gray Haulage based at Throsk, near Stirling.
The Courier contacted the firm for comment but no one had responded.
Auchtermuchty residents spoke of their shock and said it was “amazing” no one was killed.
One 88-year-old man, who lives a short distance away, said he had been “quite upset” by what happened.
He said: “I don’t know the woman involved but there were two lorries stacked higher than a two-storey building. I’d never seen anything like it.
“I was quite upset because my wife had been due at the bus stop five minutes later. She could have been killed.
“If there had been someone walking along there with a pushchair they’d have had no chance.”
Another nearby resident, who also asked not to be named, said: “I’d never seen a lorry as high loaded. I hear that one of the straps holding the pallets pinged off around Gateside. A driver stopped and picked it up and was flashing at the lorry to get it to stop but it didn’t.
“It looks like the load has been unsecure when it’s come into Muchty and toppled as it came round the bend. It might also have been destabilised as I think it brushed the trees as it came in. There were pallets over the wall and everything.”