Police took pictures of the accident scene

IN PICTURES: Lorry crashes into Gants Hill living room

by Amanda Nunn, Reporter Thursday, July 12, 2012
10:06 AM

The driver who was first on the scene after a tipper truck ploughed into the front room of a pensioner’s home said he had “visions of someone in that house dead”.

Kevin Carr was driving along Eastern Avenue when the truck in front of him allegedly smashed into a parked car and then careered over the central reservation into oncoming traffic on Tuesday afternoon.

The truck mounted the pavement before smashing into the front of a house where a woman, 76, lived.

You can view pictures of the accident scene by clicking on the link at the top right of this page.

Mr Carr, of Basildon, said: “It just unfolded in front of you like a film. It went into oncoming traffic, it was amazing they all managed to miss him.”

The truck hit a BMW on the pavement before flattening the barriers between the duel carriageways.

Neighbour Minal Gadhavi, 38, heard a loud bang just after 1pm on Tuesday. She said: “It narrowly missed a woman who was walking past who had just been to drop her kids off. I thought that could have been us.”

Mr Carr, 52, jumped out of his lorry and checked there was no one inside the BMW.

“Me and another driver ran over to the house and the man in the truck was able to talk,” he said. He then clambered through the gap in the front wall where the truck had hit the house and brought the shocked woman out through the front door. She was taken to Queen’s Hospital, Romford, by ambulance.

A firefighter on scene said: “I think she was indoors watching TV when it happened. We got the driver out of the cab using a ladder. He just wiggled his way out.”

The driver, in his 50s, was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital, Leytonstone, with a hand injury.

Structural engineers have been on the scene and scaffolding was erected yesterday in front of the damaged house.