'We've said for years that this will happen': Villagers react after lorry crashes into Shrewsbury pub
Residents of Bayston Hill have said more needs to be done to improve safety on the A49 after a lorry smashed through two buildings in the village.
A lorry driver was cut free from his lorry after it crashed through two buildings in Bayston Hill in the early hours of Monday morning.
Emergency services were called to the A49 in Bayston Hill at around 5.30am after the Chilton Bulk Transport lorry smashed through the corner of the home next to Hong Kong City Chinese takeaway and into the side of the Three Fishes pub.
At around 10.30am, recovery teams were carefully removing the lorry from the side of the pub while residents gathered across the road to watch the operation.
Living next door, Sarah Richards, 42, was one of the first on the scene after she was woken by what she described as a "big bang". Sarah said she and her partner rushed out of the house to check on the driver, who had reportedly suffered a broken leg in the incident.
Charlotte Cowlishaw, 23, was also woken by the noise from the crash. She said: "I didn't come out because I've got a 19-month-old. But to be honest, you often get lorries pass by and if they're going quite fast it vibrates all the houses. You can feel it and it's quite loud.
"Sometimes they chip stones up and it hits the front door and that's really loud as well - so I just sort of turned over and thought that was that. I didn't know what had happened until I saw all of the emergency services."
According to locals at the scene, the pub was fortunately unoccupied at the time of the collision while the family residing in the home all escaped without injury - although one eye-witness reported they had to be rescued out of one of the windows.
In the aftermath of the crash, residents were reflecting on the dangers of the busy A-road that passes through their village. Several pointed out the barrier next to the Chinese takeaway had only just been replaced after another crash.
The pub, which has been up for sale for around a year, was recently purchased by West Midlands pub company and micro-brewer Black Country Ales.
Bayston Hill resident, James Deurden has been managing the pub for the last couple of months and said he is due to hand over the keys next week.
"We've said for years that this will happen," James said. "No one slows down, lorries come through regularly at 50 to 60 miles per hour and stay flat out all the way through."
Mr Oakley, who lives behind the pub, said he wrote to the police 15 years ago about the dangers of the road. He said: "The speed that they come through here is ridiculous, I'd say it's an accident waiting to happen but they keep happening."
"I'm quite used to it now," added 82-year-old Mr Metcalfe, who spoke of another incident in 2021 when wooden posts that fell off the back of a lorry left two people injured.
Mr Metcalfe added: "Something needs to be done, they need to police it, put in restrictions - it's causing no ends of trouble."
Anna Toon, 42, said she's long worried about the safety of her three children walking along the road.
She said: "It's awful, it's a 30 but no one does 30. They fly down and they think it's a straight road and it's not, we've had things fall off lorries, cars roll over."