A curious Coldharbour Lane car crash, 15th July 2007
Photos © urban75 editor

I was working at home and at around 4.45pm, I heard an almighty 'whump' that sounded like a pile of books falling from the bookshelf outside my room.

I jumped out and saw out of the window a car lying upside down in the middle of the street.

I immediately rang the police/ambulance and they were there very fast indeed - the first police car was there in less than 30 seconds and the motorbike paramedic in less than 2 minutes. Impressive work!

Thankfully, it looked like no one was seriously hurt - I saw the driver crawl out from the wreckage and she seemed fine, if a bit shaken.

But how did it happen?


Seconds after the crash.


The driver is the woman in the red sat down by the pavement.


The police were fast on the scene.


I still can't work out how the car managed to end up on its roof. There were no skidmarks and I didn't hear any screeching - so maybe it somehow rode up the side of the black BMW behind?

But if that was the case, surely it would be further up the street?


Fifteen minutes later there were two fire engine crews on scene, two paramedic ambulances and several police cars.


A crowd gathers. Funnily enough, half of them seemed to have high visibility jackets on too.




Inspecting the damage.





Turning the car over.







One more push...


Within the hour the road was reopened and the damaged car towed away. Good work, emergency services!

« back to features homepage