Personal Injury Dorset
A MAN narrowly escaped serious injury when part of a chimney crashed on his head.
Paramedics treated Carl Porter, 26, for head wounds after bricks tumbled down and smashed around his feet as he chatted to a friend in Musgrave Place, off Weymouth seafront.
Mr Porter, whose head was struck by a two-inch long piece of brick, said it was lucky an elderly person or a mum with a pram was not walking by as the injuries could have been far worse.
Police were alerted to the scene and the road closed amid safety fears on Wednesday afternoon.
It is understood local authority engineers will be investigating.
Unemployed Mr Porter said he recognised the sound of bricks sliding down the roof following his time working as a roofer.
He said: “I heard something rattling down the roof. I looked up and all I had my eyes on were the big bits of brick and the rest came down and hit me on the forehead.
“It’s been a shock I must admit, it’s not every day you get hit by a brick. But at the end of the day that should not have happened; it’s a complete danger, if the wind picks up I think it will fall down.”
He added: “It’s lucky it wasn’t a kid in a pram because you get a lot of woman with buggies along here because it’s a shortcut to the seafront.
“So I’m grateful it was me and not a pram, it could’ve killed them or if a little lady got hit on the back of their head it would have killed them.”
Neighbouring residents have now branded the popular shortcut as a danger.
The garden of Ron Wheatland’s property backs onto an area below the chimney.
He said: “It’s a danger for anyone walking past. You only need to get someone wander past or whatever and it falls down. They cannot leave it like that. A lot of people use the road as a short cut. It’s definitely a danger to pedestrians.”
Phil West, owner of the Sherborne Hotel next to Musgrave Place, said: “The bottom corner of the chimney fell off. It’s just lucky someone wasn’t seriously hurt.”
A Dorset Police spokesman said an officer at the scene reported a chimney about to fall down and a man had received cuts to his head from a piece of debris.
A South Western Ambulance service spokesman said: “A patient was treated at the scene for head injuries.”
The owner of the building could not be contacted yesterday.
source: dorsetecho.co.uk
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