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Tree drives through pizza delivery car

Tari JeffersManjimup-Bridgetown Times
A pizza delivery driver was lucky to escape serious injury when his car was skewered by a tree on Sunday.
Camera IconA pizza delivery driver was lucky to escape serious injury when his car was skewered by a tree on Sunday. Credit: Supplied/WA Police

A 17-year-old Farmhouse Pizza delivery employee escaped serious injury on Sunday when a tree branch skewered his car during the once-in-a-decade storm.

The teenage boy was returning from a delivery when a tree branch on Rutherford Street broke and impacted his car.

He received abrasions on his hands and was later cleared of a concussion.

Farmhouse Pizza owner Ben Verrall thanked the emergency services and police for responding so quickly to his call.

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“When my driver called me, I thought he’d broken down, but when he said what had happened, I called the police immediately,” he said.

“Ten minutes later the area was already cordoned off.”

The incident happened just after 7pm and Sen. Const. Jacqui Gobby said the impact of the branch pushed the car 10m.

The broken tree branch that fell onto Rutherford Street and skewered the car.
Camera IconThe broken tree branch that fell onto Rutherford Street and skewered the car. Credit: Manjimup Police

“He was only driving passed, he wasn’t even parked nearby, he about 10m away from the tree,” she said.

Mr Verrall said his employee was incredibly unlucky to have his car hit by the tree branch but also incredibly lucky to not be badly hurt.

Mr Verrall closed the business early on Sunday as a result of the incident to take his employee to hospital.

“The roof of the car hit him on the head but the hospital said he didn’t have a concussion,” he said.

“Thank you again to the emergency services, you made the bad situation a lot easier.”

Manjimup police had only three call outs as a result of storm damage, including fallen power lines.

DFES reported about 50 call outs for the South West region, mostly in Busselton and Margaret River, while there was no major damage to houses in the Manjimup region.

The Manjimup shire clean up crew attended nearly 40 trees and big limb removals from roads on Monday.

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