Driver trapped as bridge collapses
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A TRUCK driver missed death by inches last week when a footbridge collapsed on top of his lorry.
John Francis, 36, of Gravesend, Kent, was trapped in his crushed cab for half an hour while firemen struggled to cut him free.
He was later taken to West Hill Hospital, Dartford, with serious chest and leg injuries, and his condition this week was "fair".
Mr Francis, who works for Brian Anderson Plant Hire, of Gravesend, was carrying a mechanical digger along Green Street Green Road, Dartford, when the digger hit the footbridge, bringing the central span down on top of him.
A police spokesman said later: "It is a miracle the driver is still alive. If the cab had been a couple of inches nearer the bridge he would have stood no chance."
The accident is a carbon copy of a bridge collapse which happened a mile down the road in 1969, when another mechanical digger brought down a footbridge, killing a woman.
Kent County Council is launching an inquiry into the latest collapse, and a spokesman for Brian Anderson Plant Hire said its representatives were at the scene and would compile a full report.