Car crashes into butcher's shop (From Watford Observer)

Car crashes into butcher's shop

4:53pm Tuesday 6th December 2011 in News By Adam Binnie

A butcher's shop front was smashed after two cars collided in Chorleywood.

W.H. Higgins in Lower Road sits at the bottom of South Road, a steep hill which joins Lower Road at a T-junction.

Eyewitnesses described seeing a Chevrolet Aveo travelling down South Road, before colliding with a Skoda Fabia which was parked in front of the butcher's.

The force of the impact was enough to ram the Skoda over the pavement, turn it through 90 degrees, and push it through the shop front.

Melvyn Tasker was working alone in the butcher's at the time and said the pavement outside is a popular thoroughfare for shoppers and school children.

He said: “I was just stood serving a customer and there was one almighty bang, if that car hadn't been parked in the way it would have come straight through the window.

“It's only cosmetic damage but if it hadn't been during school time one of the children could have been killed.”

Police, ambulance and fire fighters were called at about 2pm, and the driver of the Chevrolet, who is in his 80s, was taken to hospital.

The female driver of the other car was assessed by paramedics and did not need hospital treatment.

Phil Nisbett, who has owned the shop for 12 years, said a similar incident happened in 2002 when a car rolled down South Road and hit a white van outside the shop.

He said: “I was shocked but not surprised to find out this had happened again. We were talking about this the other day because we were worried about ice on the hill.

“We asked the council to put in something to stop this happening, what annoys me is that was totally ignored. This could have been avoided.”

The popular shopping street was packed with people stocking up on groceries or picking up Christmas presents.