CRASH UPDATE: Four hour wait for evacuated residents, say engineers

3:54pm Wednesday 18th July 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Rachel Ryan

Gas engineers say evacuated residents and shop owners may be able to return to the evacuated Kirkby Lonsdale street by 9pm tonight.

The town's Main Street was cleared because of fears of a gas leak after a car crashed into a shop.

An 87-year-old man is being treated in hospital for minor injuries after the BMW X1 he was driving collided with the Pure Stone on Main Street.

Residents have been evacuated and police, fire and paramedics are currently at the scene after the accident at around 3pm this afternoon.

People are being asked to stay away from Main Street and local traffic diversions have been put in place.

A police spokeswoman said: "The gas board are in attendance and are dealing with the gas leak.

"People are asked to avoid the area to prevent congestion whilst remedial work is carried out on the road and the building as a result of the collision. It is estimated this could take up to four hours."

The driver who was injured was transported to Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Comments(10)

Lakesgirl81 says...
9:35pm Wed 18 Jul 12

I think the question of "how old is to old to drive" needs to be asked.

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Lakeuk says...
10:03pm Wed 18 Jul 12

Nothing in the report that points to age being a factor

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Lakesgirl81 says...
10:10pm Wed 18 Jul 12

The previous report said that the driver was 87.

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angry of milnthorpe says...
8:03am Thu 19 Jul 12

yes 87. doesnt say that was a factor though.
says he was driving a BMW, was that a factor for you too?

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tictoc1 says...
9:16am Thu 19 Jul 12

Lakesgirl81 wrote:
The previous report said that the driver was 87.
You don't know what happened. It could easily have been a 30 year old with an advanced driving qualification...
"Don't judge a book by its' cover"!

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Cas220 says...
10:11am Thu 19 Jul 12

I would presume that, like most X1s, the car was an automatic - this was probably the major factor.

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tictoc1 says...
11:14am Thu 19 Jul 12

No one should presume!

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1207 says...
12:10pm Fri 20 Jul 12

The Question should be was the Driver going the right way down main street as it is not uncommon to see a older driver going the wrong way ether on the main street or around the market square,and on a good day they go around the A65 roundabout the wrong way as well this is not a comment on age as all BMW drivers expect other drivers to know were they are going as they never use there mirrors or indicators.

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aimzygal says...
7:06pm Sat 21 Jul 12

Surely the most important thing in all of this is nobody was badly hurt especially being so close to the cafe. Accidents happen to the young, the old , ones with or without automatics.

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nixon1 says...
3:48pm Wed 25 Jul 12

If it were a 17 year old driver i bet the comments would have a different response in comments saying that age is a factor.

I know of several incidents recently where age has been an accountable factor. Be it reaction times or an illness as a result of age ie heart attach/stroke/poor vision etc.

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