Todmorden

Truck breaks bridge—men escape luckily

Structure has been regarded as unsafe for some time

Two me, Harry Hutchins, 72 Redpath Avenue, and Stanley Cox, Cosburn Avenue, narrowly escaped a most horrible death yesterday afternoon when the Don Valley bridge broke and caved in under the weight of a five ton truckload of bricks. As it was, however, the men were not seriously injured.

Hutchins, the driver, sustained injuries to his back, his legs and forehead, whilst Cox, his helper, suffered a lacerated scalp and face.

The bridge is located at the bottom of the Don Valley Brick yard hill which runs off of Broadview Avenue opposite the Todmorden hotel.

"We were almost over the bridge, our front wheels were on the earth approach, suddenly the back gave way and we felt ourselves falling. It was a very peculiar sensation, the tons of brick falling into the river and we resisting the fall, waiting to follow the bricks", Mr. Hutchins said in describing the accident to The Star.

The narrowness of the men's escape was indicated where the truck started to skid backwards on the soil. There the front wheels finally gripped the earth, preventing the truck from toppling backwards and crushing the men.

Mr. Hutchins stated that he and his helper were trapped in the driver's cab and were unable to open the door to climb out after the accident. "I climbed our of the side window and with difficulty opened the door of the truck", he said.

The Don Valley Brick Company, whose yards are located in the valley, have not used the bridge for some time owing to its unsafe condition, using a much stronger bridge which spans the Don on their property.

The township council of East York last September discussed plans for a new bridge to replace the old one but no definite action was taken.