Part of Crown Street remains closed after a truck mounted the footpath and took out a number of shop awnings on Tuesday morning.
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The truck was travelling east when it mounted the gutter outside Cartridge World and ended up wedged under the awning between the Thai restaurant and a traffic light pole on the corner of Crown Street and Denison Street/Gladstone Avenue about 9.30am.
One eastbound lane has reopened on Crown Street after all lanes were earlier closed. One lane remains closed with drivers able to divert via Darling Street, Loftus Street, Denison Street, Victoria Street and back onto the Princes Highway (Keira Street).
Witness Michael Gatt said he was stopped at the traffic lights when he saw the truck bearing down on him in the rear-view mirror.
“As I viewed what was happening, I said ‘I hope this fellow doesn’t hit me’ because he would’ve done a lot of damage but he swerved to the left, went on to the footpath, took the awnings out and missed my car,” Mr Gatt said.
“Fortunately he had enough common sense to try and avoid me... When he realised he couldn’t stop he swerved and went onto the footpath.
“I’m a very lucky person.”
Another witness, Michael Wilson, 45, from Port Kembla was waiting to cross at the lights when he heard the bang of the truck mounting the footpath behind him.
“Twenty seconds before and I would have been in there walking down [at the crash site]… I panicked and jumped out of the way,” Mr Wilson said.
“I’m still a bit shaky but glad noone got hurt. If he’d hit the cars there might have been more damage.”
It is understood there is asbestos in at least one of the shops. Firefighters are using water to spray it down.
Hazmat crews arrived on site just after 10am. The heavy vehicle inspector is also on site.
Paramedics assessed three people at the scene – the driver of the truck and two bystanders.
None of them required transport to hospital.
More to come