Incident at the Chequers Roundabout 16/8/2011

Incident at the Chequers Roundabout 16/8/2011

16 August 2011 at 21:41

A 16 tonne Norbert-Dentressangle lorry struck a side of the Chequers pub in Houghton Regis this evening just after 5pm. The lorry apparently lost control and ended up going the wrong way around the roundabout out of Sundon Rd. Damage was caused to the left of the frontage of the building.

A witness said there were several loud bangs and crashes, and when she looked round there were 5 or 6 cars involved.

Surrounding roads were closed for over 3 hours. Roads started to reopen around 20:10.

There were no fatalities, some bruising and minor injuries. Five people were taken to Luton and Dunstable Hospital for treatment. The driver of the lorry was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge by air ambulance that alighted on the green by the side of Parkside Drive.

Three people were described as walking wounded and two others had neck or back injury.

A spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service said: "Given the potential of the situation we are thankful that the consequences were not more serious."

A gas leak that was caused in the crash was dealt with and structural engineers are due to examine the building.

Incident at the Chequers Roundabout 16 August 2011. Sharon Platt-McDonald an eye witness, was first on the scene, just after 5pm. "I'd just come off the roundabout. I heard a series of loud bangs. I stumbled out and found at least 5 or 6 cars that were quite damaged. So I went to the first one as the lady had just stumbled out. She was obviously quite shocked. She had a compression injury to the chest. So I sat her down, been a nurse, and took her pulse, and sort of calmed her. She said my daughter's in there. Her daughter had taken a hit from the other side. And she'd just rushed out and she had a sort of neck injury, sort of a whiplash, but there was clearly one gentleman in the car adjacent who had a huge Hematoma. He had a huge bruise that had enlarged under the skin so I rushed to the Chequers pub to get some ice to put onto ... "being interviewed by ITN reporter.

Incident at the Chequers Roundabout 16 August 2011. Scene of wreckage leading up to the roundabout. The lorry ended up in the annexe at the side of the pub.

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Houghton Regis News Desk

22 August 2011

22 August 2011. The Chequers Hungry Horse pub in East End is now closed until further notice.

The Norbert Dentressangle lorry that crashed was en route from Stevenage to Leighton Buzzard.

Dave Finnie is the general manager of Norbert Dentressangle Specialist Services. According to him the driver was taken to hospital but, having suffered no significant injury,was discharged. The driver’s mate was uninjured.

Nathan James This is a shame pub next door be closed now i got treck to dunny!

22 August 2011 at 15:18LikeMessage

Houghton Regis News Desk All the company are saying at present is, "“A full investigation into the cause of the accident is now underway.”"

22 August 2011 at 16:38Like

Alan Winter I'm trying to understand why the vehicle, doing the journey it was, was coming down Sundon Rd into Houghton Regis. It's a clear case for why we need the A5-M1 link road.

22 August 2011 at 16:42Like1Message

Sharon Moore heard he had a heart attack and collapsed at the wheel....

22 August 2011 at 22:07LikeMessage

Sue Drinkwater Noone had more than minor injuries, but as Sarah says, how on earth did the driver manage it then?? Too fast? Distracted?

23 August 2011 at 15:43LikeMessage

Leanne Golder I was told that his breaks failed and that is from quite a reliable source? Guess we will have to wait and see what the outcome of the investigation is.

29 August 2011 at 12:04LikeMessage

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Houghton Regis News Desk shared their photo.

30 November 2011

More than three and a half months after the incident, a spokesperson forNorbert Dentressangle, who's vehicle collided with several vehicles and demolished a wall of the Chequers, Houghton Regis, can only tell us that "the incident has been fully investigated but due to employee confidentiality Norbert Dentressangle cannot comment on the outcome."

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Houghton Regis News Desk

9 January 2012

LORRY CRASH UPDATE

Cllr A. Winter, has received an update to enquiries about the cause of the crash in August at The Chequers HUngry Horse.

Statement: Norbert Dentressangle has undertaken a full review of the incident in Houghton Regis on 16 August 2011 and there is currently no evidence to suggest that the driver of the vehicle involved in accident was interacting with his mobile phone at the time of the incident.
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17th January 2017
Freedom of Information request to Beds Police asking for indications of causes of the accident. "searches failed to locate any documents relevant to your request. It is policy to only keep road traffic collision books for three years unless a child was injured. Accordingly I have determined that the information to which you seek access is not held by Bedfordshire Police. "