A HUSBAND and wife say they are lucky to be alive after a horrific crash on the A494.

A routine shopping trip to Chester turned sour for HGV driver Gerald Busher, 54, and his wife Valerie, 47, of Park Avenue, Flint, when a crane was ripped off the back of a lorry and stopped dead in front of their Land Rover Discovery which was travelling at 50mph.

It was only the quick-thinking actions of Gerald which prevented the couple from coming to any harm and they miraculously walked away without injury.

Gerald said: “It was pretty horrific. We were coming from Chester and we came on the dual carriageway and were going to come off at Queensferry. We were behind this lorry going at 50mph.

“I don’t think the driver had lowered the crane enough and he hit the railway bridge with the machine and it ripped it off the back of the truck. There was a lot of braking.

“It was a big lump of metal and it stopped dead. There were pipes flying off everywhere. There was a lot of swearing.”

Valerie said: “It was horrific. My husband saw this thing flying towards us. I was texting and I did not know what was happening until he shouted. We tried to avoid it
but could not stop in time

“When we hit it there was a loud bang and a big jolt. We were thrown back into the seat and then forward. Some people stopped to check we were ok and phoned the
emergency services. We remained in the car until help arrived.”

The Hi-Ab crane, which is used to pick up stones, was fixed to the back of the lorry.
Police attended the scene and a spokesman said they are looking into the incident.

Gerald said: “I have spent a lot of time on the road and consider myself a good
driver. I think the actions I took helped.

“We are very lucky to escape injury. It is lucky nobody was killed. We were braking so hard we were lucky the car behind us did not go into us. If we had have been in
a family car I think it would have been a lot worse.”

The incident caused two miles of tailbacks on the westbound carriageway under
the railway bridge adjacent to the A550 shortly before 1.30pm on Wednesday.