Travis Perkins driver rescues builders after accident

A driver from builders merchant Travis Perkins helped free a group of men trapped in a van which had overturned.
Andy Westwood was driving a HGV delivering goods for Travis Perkins near Totnes in Devon when he came across a vehicle partly hanging on its side.

Westwood said: “I was following a car and a tractor and had came over the brow of a hill when the tractor came to a screeching halt. Then I saw this van on its side in a hedge. It looked like it had hit a bank landed on its roof and tipped over on it side.

“Because of its position you couldn’t get over the top of it and there were about six men still inside.”

He was helped at the scene by the car driver and the tractor driver who got a lump hammer out of his vehicle to try and help them escape.

“I used the lump hammer to try and break the glass but it wasn’t working so I just said ‘cover your eyes’ and kicked the glass in with my toe-capped boots,” he said.

While they freed the men from the driver’s cab others helped free people trapped in the back, Westwood added.

He said he believed the men were Polish builders. They spoke broken English and told him they had swerved to avoid something and hit the embankment, he said.