Personal injury compensation news
13/07/2007
Runaway ball causes car accident
Several people from Pennsylvania, USA, could be in line to make personal injury compensation claims after a wrecking ball caused chaos in a quiet town.
The 1,500lb ball became detached from a crane as it was being used to demolish an old college library in the town of Meadville and proceeded to hurtle downhill along a three-quarter mile stretch of road.
Cars swerved to avoid the destructive lump of metal as it gathered pace and pedestrians desperately ran for cover, dragging children and dogs with them. It bounced from kerb to kerb, smashing in panels of parked cars and leaving chunks of broken kerbstone in its wake.
Miraculously, nobody was crushed by the runaway wrecking ball as anybody who had been would surely have died or suffered serious personal injuries.
But the lack of human damage couldn't continue for much longer and the ball eventually slammed into the back of a car that was waiting patiently at a junction, coming to a halt lodged in its boot.
Such was the weight of the enormous wrecking ball that the car was sent careering into another vehicle that was waiting in the traffic queue 20 feet ahead. In turn, that car then smashed into another, leaving the road littered with bits of glass and broken bumper.
Emergency services rushed to the scene of the bizarre road accident and the three drivers of the cars were taken to hospital suffering from a range of wounds including whiplash, head injuries and back injuries.
Speaking from his hospital bed, the driver of the first vehicle hit by the wrecking ball spoke of his strange car accident experience, saying, "All of a sudden, the back windshield exploded and I hit the car in front of me."
It is not yet known whether the three injured Pennsylvanians are planning to make personal injury compensation claims against the firm responsible for the demolition of the college library, but expert no win, no fee solicitors believe the trio would have a good chance of winning damages.
