A group of people in a smoking shelter had a lucky escape when a van slid down an embankment, and the vehicle landed on top of a wooden smoking shelter, smashing it to pieces.

At about 2pm on Monday, January 9th, West Midlands Ambulance Service was called to Hazelhurst Nursing Home, near Kerne Bridge, Ross-on-Wye.

When they arrived the patients and van driver were all inside the nursing home. Three patients from the smoking shelter were assessed but escaped with superficial arm and shoulder injuries. The van driver wasn’t in the vehicle at the time of the incident. He told the Ross Gazette later, “Things could have been so much worse, metal and bolts can be replaced, people cannot.”

A spokesman for the Ambulance Service added, “It was very much a lucky escape.”