Roy Evans recalls a road traffic accident (RTA) on the Chiddingfold
Road
In addition to my full-time employment in the
Dunsfold Aerodrome
Fire Service I also worked part-time for the Surrey Fire Brigade as
Officer in Charge of the Dunsfold village fire appliance which involved
attending fires, road traffic accidents and even flooding, personnel
being called out by pager or bleeper.
One morning I had got home at about 8.20 after a 24
hour shift and
was eating my breakfast when my bleeper wet off. Arriving at the
station I learned there was a RTA at Wetwood Bends about a mile and a
half away on the Chiddingfold Road and within six minutes six men and
the appliance had arrive at the scene. The Bends were two notorious ‘S’
bends and a car heading west had turned right on a blind bend and
collided with the off-side front of a car travelling towards Dunsfold
and the driver was trapped and injured. I notified the Brigade and
requested an ambulance and police as the road was impassable.
RTA
At Wetwood Bends
We had to cut off the driver’s door before assessing his injuries
and with the door off I could see his feet were trapped by the engine
bulkhead which had been forced to the rear. Whilst updating the Brigade
on the radio I recognised the driver’s car and registration, although I
couldn’t recognise him due to his facial injuries. The direction of
travel and time of day confirmed that he was an engineer from the
Bristol Engine Company who travelled to the airfield several days a
week to install and ground test the Pegasus engine fitted in the
Harrier. He was given first aid whilst the bulkhead and pedals were
carefully cut allowing his feet and legs to be freed so he could be
transferred to the ambulance.
Knowing that the Bristol engineer would be expected
at the airfield I telephoned the Chief Test Pilot, Duncan Simpson, and
told him about the accident and where I thought the injured man had
been taken. Strangely, I thought, the CTP asked where the car had been
taken and I guessed the Dunsfold Village garage.
In the evening one of the Dunsfold firemen, whose
full-time job was as a mechanic at the Dunsfold garage, said he had
been sent out to recover the two vehicles involved in the crash. Later
in the day a group of suited men arrived at the garage, one showing a
Special Branch ID who asked to see the Bristol engineer’s car and then
for the group to be left alone with the vehicle. However, they had to
ask for the assistance of a mechanic to access a compartment in the
mangled floor pan and so retrieve several engine performance computer
tapes.
![top Top](../hasharedfiles/hunteruptrans.gif)