Horsham refuse worker left with ‘life-changing injuries’ after van crashes into bin lorry
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A Horsham refuse worker has been left with life-changing injuries after a van crashed into the back of his bin lorry.
The 57-year-old was airlifted to St George’s Hospital in Tooting after suffering a fractured skull, broken ribs and a bleed to his chest following the crash at Bucks Green near Horsham[2] in May.
Another worker was also hurt in the crash which happened while their bin lorry was stationary with beacons flashing as they collected bins from the side of the road.
The 57-year-old injured worker was placed in an induced coma after being rushed to hospital and his wife was warned that he might die. He is now said to be making ‘slow but steady progress’ and has been moved to a hospital nearer Horsham.
Video grab showing the moment a van smashes into a bin lorry in Cowfold – luckily no-one was injured in that incident
However, his wife said his ongoing recovery has been extremely stressful for family and friends. “My husband has suffered life-changing injuries and is still in hospital after seven weeks,” she said. “He is very frustrated and upset some days as he cannot communicate.”He hates the tubes everywhere and he has had to endure so much pain and suffering. Personally, as a family, we have had the burden of travelling to London[3] and back every other day for four weeks and we are now still travelling to the south coast and back for hospital visits.“We now have financial worries and may have to sell our house and possibly give up work. I had to take a lot of time off work.“I didn’t know if my husband would live or die, so have suffered considerable stress from that. Neither of us had a life for the first six weeks and there is still a long way to go yet.”
The second worker was taken to hospital with bruising to his ribs, spleen and stomach, but was later released although he remains off work.
A spokesperson revealed that two further incidents had also been reported. In one, a motorist drove onto the pavement to get around a parked waste collection vehicle in Warnham – bumping into a collection crew member, who was fortunately uninjured. A similar incident happened in Cowfold.The council spokesperson said: “Our ongoing thoughts are very much with our injured crew members and their families at such difficult times as they continue to recover from these horrendous accidents, which have occurred as they have been carrying out their essential jobs to support our communities.”There have been three serious incidents in three weeks recently on local Horsham district roads resulting in serious life-changing injuries for one crew member and considerable injury and stress to others, which is not acceptable.”As a council, we issue a plea to all drivers to be more vigilant when they see waste collection trucks going about their rounds.”They will be stopping to do their collections, often on busy roads and crew members will be walking around the vehicles in their high visibility uniforms to perform their duties.
“So, please be more observant and exercise more caution around our waste collection vehicles.”Meanwhile, Sussex Police are appealing for witnesses to the Bucks Green crash which happened at around 8:30am on May 29.