Serious injury to walkers was narrowly avoided on Friday 9 January when a tractor and trailer used by the Environment Agency to transport shingle, swung over the seawall at Dogs Hill, Winchelsea Beach tipping its load onto the path below and just missing a walker and her dog.
A fellow walker, Penny Downes, witnessed the incident. “A line of lorries was heading towards Pett Level and this one at the back of the line must have got too close to the edge of the sea wall as he came round the bend. A wheel came over the edge of the bank then the whole thing started to tip really quite slowly pulling the cab around.
“I was screaming at a woman on the path because it was just behind her and she was oblivious. I really thought that it was going to land on her and kill the driver too but luckily as it tipped, the driver managed to stop the cab going over too. It was awful to watch. The woman was really shaken when she realised what happened – it was literally about two metres behind her. I checked she was ok and talked to the driver who was also quite shaken and said that as he came around the corner the back drifted – I don’t quite understand how.
“It is so lucky that no-one was killed or injured. I hope there’s going to be an enquiry as the other lorries carried on towards Pett Level.”
The lorries are used by the Environment Agency to move shingle from Rye Harbour to Pett Level as longshore drift and storms shift the shingle eastwards along the coast resulting in a build-up of shingle at the harbour wall and leaving parts of the sea defences along the sea wall and beach exposed. This was part of the regular maintenance of the beach to help protect coastal properties from flooding.
An Environment Agency spokesman said, “We have asked contractors to report back to us on the circumstances of an incident at Pett Level at the weekend involving a dumper truck during work to maintain the beach’s natural flood defence on our behalf.”
There were no reported injuries and the vehicle was quickly recovered.
You can read more about the trucks moving the shingle along the coast here.
Image Credits: Penny Downes .