Water lucky escape! Taxi driver's car impaled through radiator by 10ft drainage pipe which fell off passing van
A taxi driver was lucky to escape with his life when waste water pipes fell from the back of a passing van and smashed into the front of his car. Jack Jones, 60, was showered with glass when one 10ft-long pipe shot off the truck and headed for his windscreen, just inches from his head, then took out the taxi sign on the roof. Water was also left gushing from his Toyota Avensis when another of the plastic tubes pierced the front grill and became embedded in the radiator.
Mr Jones - who has been a taxi driver for 18 years - was left shaken following the incident near Newport, Isle of Wight.
He was on his way to pick up a passenger and travelling at 30mph when the Mercedes flatbed truck carrying the pipes passed him going in the opposite direction. Vehicles travelling behind Mr Jones piled into each other as they slammed on the brakes, just after 2.30pm on Monday.
He added: 'I stumbled out of the car and noticed around three cars behind me had gone into the back of each other as they slammed on their brakes. 'I was lucky to get out of this alive. 'I think the driver of the Mercedes was as shocked as me. 'He came to a halt a few hundred yards down the road and looked back to see the pipe sticking up from the front of my car. 'I think he feared I was dead as he came back toward my taxi.'
Duncan Smith, from Hampshire Constabulary, said: 'The Isle of Wight Roads Policing Unit is investigating to establish whether there were any criminal offences.'
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