Keith couple A96 crash horror
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A COUPLE suffered a terrifying ordeal when their car was crushed by a lorry blown over by Storm Gertrude.
Miraculously, Caroline Munro (41) and her husband Martin Bayliss (43) escaped with their lives and are recuperating at their home in Drummuir, near Keith.
Caroline recalled the horror moment she thought they were going to die.
“As the lorry was coming towards us I assumed we were going to die. Things didn’t exactly go in slow motion, but there was enough time to realise what was happening and I believed we would die,” she said.
“The impact was massive, and the noise was deafening, and then suddenly everything was quiet again. When I realised I was still alive, I looked at the damage to Martin’s side of the car and assumed that he must be dead. But he spoke to me and the relief was amazing.”
Martin was driving early last Friday morning on the A96 near Huntly as the couple headed to work in Aberdeen.
“I’m a big fan of Windy Wilson (amateur weather forecaster) and always read the Facebook page,” Caroline said. “On Friday it was warning people to take care in the high winds and to beware of flying debris,
“We were travelling on the A96 just beyond Huntly at about 7.30am and I was anxious about the weather. The next thing is that we can see the back of a lorry coming the other way begin to swing out.
“It started to tip over on to its side and came right at us almost like a cheese slice through the car. It hit Martin’s side of the car and completely destroyed it, and ripped the roof off.
“My right shoulder hurt and I couldn’t move it, so I couldn’t release my seat belt. Traffic had obviously come to a standstill and one of the other drivers who came to help had a knife and cut the belt so that I could get out.
“Almost unbelievably, once I had managed to get out of the car, Martin shuffled over and climbed out of my door.
“Some lovely people from the electrician firm Sparks took us to their van to keep us warm until the ambulance arrived.”
The driver of the lorry had to be cut free from his overturned cab by Scottish Fire and Rescue crews from Huntly.
Caroline works for the Care Inspectorate based in Aberdeen but has a case load that includes care homes in Huntly, Portsoy and Banff. Martin is a teacher at Kemnay Academy.
They were taken together by ambulance to Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin.
“The care we got there was absolutely fantastic,” Caroline said. “Martin has a three-inch cut on his head that needed to be glued and he has a sore neck, and I have a broken collarbone and broken ribs.
“Both of us have other grazes and bruises, especially where the seat belts dug in. Right now my chest feels like I’ve been hit by a hammer.”
After being discharged from hospital later the same day, the couple headed home to begin to come to terms with their traumatic experience.
“Once we knew we were okay we phoned our sons Dan (20) and Ed (18) and they came home from university at the weekend to see us,” Caroline said.
“I won??t be able to drive for at least six weeks, but Martin is determined that he’ll be back at school as soon as possible.
“We have the physical injuries, but I’m not too sure that we have even started to come to terms emotionally with what happened. I think that will take a long time,” she said.
The couple moved to Drummuir from Oldmeldrum in September. “We wanted somewhere with a big garden and amazing views, which is why we moved here,” Caroline said.
“We have the most glorious views straight across to Ben Rinnes.”
Being in a remote area, they decided to buy a four-wheel-drive vehicle in case of bad weather. “We’d only had the car for three weeks at the time of the accident,” Caroline said.
“Her name was Hedwig, after the owl in Harry Potter. Although our car is a write-off, we are very grateful that we are still here.”
