A LORRY driver who "thought he was a goner" after he lost control and overturned on a Maldon road has blamed the road surface for the incident.
John Bonnell, 29, was driving his tipper truck full of sand from G&B Finch's quarry in the village of Asheldham near Southminster to DP World in Thurrock when he lost control negotiating a bend on the Lower Burnham Road in Cold Norton.
He says his lorry's wheel went over the side of the road which made the truck overturn and block the two-lane road just before 10am on Friday.
"I just came down the road normally. I came round the bend and I slowed down as I had an articulated lorry coming the other way," said Mr Bonnell, who escaped with a few grazes to his arm in the incident and says he was not speeding.
"The back of the lorry just dropped down off the road so I corrected it and the next thing I knew the lorry just turned over. There was a driver behind and he said when I went over the side of the road it had collapsed.
"I thought I was a goner because I saw the telegraph pole coming. I clambered out the back and the first thing I thought was 'where's my fags'?"
Police closed the road between North Fambridge Road and Kitts Hill Road while two recovery vehicles and Highways Department staff attended the scene, cleared away the large amount of sand and winched the lorry upright.
PC Gary Winfield of the Commercial Vehicle Unit at Essex Police was at the scene along with three of his colleagues.
He said: "I'm going to be downloading the data-logging machine and checking the speed data." Police later said that Mr Bonnell has been reported for careless driving.
