A lorry driver blamed his sat-nav after uprooting metal railings while negotiating a double-mini roundabout in Chelmsford.
The driver of the Home Bargains-branded Scania lorry got stuck while trying to travel from Victoria Road, across Duke Street by the railway station, down towards Parkway at about 12.40pm on Saturday.
Eyewitness Gary Young described how the driver reversed at the roundabout but ripped out the metal railings with his tailgate.
Mr Young reported the events to police, while a passer-by tried to prise the railings away, before the driver pointed the finger at his sat-nav.
"When I spoke to the driver he said 'I can't believe the sat-nav guided me this way'," said Mr Young, 44, an ex-bus driver from Chelmsford.
"I thought, 'I can't believe you're blaming the sat-nav' and not your driving. I'm thinking 'you're driving an artic and you're supposed to be a professional driver who can judge whether you can guide that vehicle'."
"If he knew he couldn't get around the roundabout he would just have to go straight over the road."
When Mr Young left but returned to the scene about 30 minutes later the driver had gone and the mangled railings were left outside Mail Boxes Etc on Duke Street.
Manager James Atkinson said: "I was at my desk when I heard this God-awful scraping noise and the lorry juddering and I thought he must have hit a car.
"He pulled away and there was more of a grinding noise, then I saw he had got the railings caught on the back of the tail lift and he couldn't push them off.
"Some chap started to pull them off but it had wrapped itself right around the tailgate at the back of this lorry.
"Ten minutes later the police turned up and they helped him to prise it off."
Mr Atkinson, 44, whose brother drives HGVs, said the mini-roundabout is used as a notorious junction in training routes for learner lorry drivers.
The junction has a reflective bollard in its centre to guide vehicles around it, while a lamppost on the corner of the roundabout is scuffed badly from multiple scrapes over the years.
Mr Atkinson added: "It's a tough test but articulated lorries are coming through this part of the city centre all the time and I have no problem with it."
An Essex Police spokesman said traffic could still pass while the lorry lay stationary and that the Highways authority was asked to remove the damaged barrier.
The driver was not reported for a driving offence. A spokesman for Home Bargains, which has a store in Victoria Road, refused to comment.
