Two men escape from hanging truck

A green iron railing was the only thing that kept a hanging truck from falling five storeys onto the road below when it crashed into the retaining wall on the Regional Road, yesterday.

The light commercial vehicle, a Toyota Dyna, belonging to an aluminium supplier was driving along the main artery towards Paceville when it skidded on the bridge just before the tunnels.

Two men, a 49-year-old driver from Fgura and his 25-year-old passenger from Valletta, suffered slight injuries and escaped from the truck through the window on the driver’s side.

The accident happened at about 8 a.m. when the truck skidded, hit the side wall on the passenger side and spun across the road breaking through the retaining wall on the opposite side. It came to a standstill with its front two wheels dangling in mid-air as debris from the retaining wall crashed to the road below.

There was no one on the road below – normally a busy link road between St Julians and San Ġwann – when the debris crashed down.

There are no crash barriers along the bridge where the accident happened and the retaining wall is made up of concrete pillars joined together by two green metal bars and a concrete slab on the top.

Motorists who witnessed the accident said the road was very slippery because of the heavy morning dew. The road surface still had a visible shine to it some one hour after the accident.

According to a Civil Protection Department official, one of the iron railings punctured the tyre on the driver’s side causing the truck to twist and preventing it from going over.

In fact, while the front passenger side protruded well out into mid-air, the driver’s side was closer to the road. This gave the two men on board the chance to escape from the window as other motorists held onto the back part of the truck to act as a counterbalance.

The men were taken to the Gżira health centre and certified to be suffering from slight injuries.

The owner of the aluminium company, Andrew Vassallo, who was on site, said the driver applied the brakes just before the first hump that marks the start of the bridge.

“The truck, which was carrying glass panes, skidded to one side and then bounced off to the other. The wet surface is already bad but the poor road finishing makes matters worse,” Mr Vassallo said.

The north-bound lanes were closed as the CPD removed the truck with the help of a crane and the police carried out their onsite investigations.

Transport Malta civil engineers later certified the bridge safe for the passage of vehicles and a spokesman said temporary works were conducted on the damaged parapet wall.