Road Closed

Yesterday, when I returned from my usual weekly grocery shop the police were blocking the road I normally use the access my house. I asked the officer how far along the road was closed and when he told me I thought I might just manage to get through by a back route.
When I got back to the main road there was another barrier in place across the road just a few hundred yards from my house. I spoke to the police officer and luckily she let me through.
It was obvious there had been an accident and as I looked along the road I could see what looked like a body in the road near the Tesco Metro store. I spoke to a lady who was walking along the road and she confirmed that an elderly gent had been knocked over and had been seriously injured.
Just opposite where the accident occurred is a sheltered housing complex and I wonder if this is where the man lived. It is a busy road and there is a pedestrian crossing a bit further along the road. I am not excusing the fact that he did not use the proper crossings, (I'm guilty of crossing the road where I live to save time), however I can see why it is very tempting for people with limited mobility to try and cross to conserve energy, as my own mother used to do.
I took the photo below from my house, you cannot see all the police activity behind the bushes but you can see the police station in the distance, where there is a bus stop and the pedestrian crossing. The buildings on the right are part of the sheltered housing complex, and on the left is the filling station and shop.

The road was closed all afternoon and I later heard on the news that the gentleman had been taken to a local hospital but so far I haven't been able to find out how he is doing but I'm hoping he pulls through.
Postscript:
5:15pm Sadly I have just seen a newsflash that this 76 yr old gentleman has died. My thoughts are with his family at this sad time.

Archives:
2007: View from the plane

Why do Tesco's pay little heed to health and safety?!?!

My day didn't start that well~ have I got you curious!? On new year's day my mother was knocked over outside our local Tesco Metro which is a few hundred yards up the road from where we live. I can feel the gasps.....this was not by a car but by a stack of baskets that toppled onto her and knocked her off her feet. The first I knew about it was when I heard voices at the front door and one of the checkout ladies had walked home with her.
Although there appeared to be no injuries, my mother was rather shaken and needed to rest. Over the past couple of days she has found that her shoulders and neck are very painful and she can hardly move to turn over in bed. I went back to Tesco the following day to asked to see what had been recorded in their accident book. They couldn't produce anything!!-correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought keeping accident/incident records was a H&S requirement or is it only for employees and not customers!

The acting duty manager told me he had recorded the incident on a piece of paper but he couldn't find it~ his verbal version was very different to my mother's account! He was not even aware that it was the poorly stacked baskets that had knocked her over. However he did agree that this was a H&S issue and that he had often thought there were too many baskets- so why not do something about it!!
My brother went into the store yesterday to follow up on it and still no record could be produced. I don't believe that anyone had even asked my mother for her name and address.
Today I took my mother to the doctors for a check up just to be on the safe side and there appears to be no serious damage but she is on some strong painkillers for sleeping.

My mother doesn't want to make a fuss and my brother wants to sue the pants off them (well not quite~ but he feels they could have sent her some flowers or given her a gift voucher. I think they should have enquired after her well-being, and I am inclined to agree about the flowers). My brother is very keen that she gets some form of compensation for her discomfort, my mother doesn't want to take it any further (she feels it would make it difficult to shop there and I see that) and I'm piggy in the middle~ so what would you do if you were in my shoes??????

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January 4th 2006: Now here's a challenge