14 DAY TRIAL // Bad weather has caused a lot of trouble to people living in South Wales over the past few days, as the area was hit by torrential rain and strong blasts of wind. A family's car, for instance, was nearly smashed by a 60-foot (18.3-meter) tree when the gust blew it across the road they were traveling on.
Emily and Piers Tumeth and their daughters Matilda and Alice made a miraculous escape after the fallen tree smashed into their Mazda car. The couple were driving with their young girls and the family's dog along Brynmill Lane in Swansea when the incident happened on Saturday. They were reportedly taking the girls to the Singleton Park.
Luckily, they all managed to walk away from their car unharmed, as the massive trunk was stopped by a small stone wall, which prevented it from crushing them completely.
“The car stopped and we could smell petrol fumes coming from the engine, so we just wanted to get out as quickly as we could,” Emily Tumeth said, according to Metro. “It was only then that we saw the tree and realised what had happened.”
Emergency crews arrived at the scene after calls from the public, and they temporarily closed the road. Workers from the Swansea Council spent the weekend trying to remove the tree and broken wall and check the condition of others in the park to make sure similar incidents would't happen again.
“We had a really lucky escape – I don’t want to think about what could have happened to us. We were shocked at the time and have got a few aches and pains now but, thankfully, we are OK,” the 34-year-old mother added.
It was later reported that the tree fall brought down two others in the park, blocking the nearby Langland Terrace, and South Wales Police said they were receiving numerous calls about fallen trees.
Also during the weekend, two other people were injured when a shop sign was brought down by heavy winds of up to 60mph (97 km/h). The incident happened on a crowded street in Penarth, and a female pedestrian and the shop manager needed medical care after being struck by the sign.
A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson explained that “One casualty was treated on scene and a second was taken to the University Hospital of Wales with injuries not believed to be serious.”