PICTURED:

Nine-month-old Declan and his two-year-old sister Ashlea could have been playing in their front garden.

COLIN Williamson is thanking his lucky stars that he popped round to his mum's house the other night. For when he retuned home with his partner and their two young kiddies, to their horror they discovered a 10,000 kilogram 'Bouncing Bomb' steel coil had sliced a deep furrow through solid concrete and embedded itself right up their drive after a lorry shed its heavyweight load.

"I shudder to think what would have happened if my children had been playing in the front garden" said Colin.

Now he is demanding urgent action to reduce the heavy commerical traffic outside neighbourhood homes.

Production assistant Colin, his partner Tracy and children Ashlea (two) and nine-months-old Declan were out when the coil (a mile long unravelled) bounced into their drive in Mill Lane, Sutton.

He told the Star: "We were due to go on holiday that night and had just popped round to my mum's house which isn't far away. We heard all the sirens, but didn't think anything of it until we tried to go home and found that Mill Lane had been closed off by the police.

"After taking a detour I couldn't believe my eyes when we approached our house and there was this huge coil of steel right in the middle of the drive. The drive was completely wrecked and the surface of the road had three huge dents in it.

"I was gobsmacked. What could have happened if the children had been playing in the front garden or if I had been packing the car for our holiday - there's no way we would have survived.

"Mill Lane has a really heavy traffic problem, and the amount of HGVs which use this road is ridiculous. Residents are getting up a petition and hopefully we can avoid this type of accident in the future."

A spokesman for St Helens Council, said: "We sympathise with the residents of Mill Lane with regards to the traffic. But it is a B road which provides direct access to a number of industrial estates in the area.

"We're aware it's a worry to residents and are monitoring the situation. But we can't provide an immediate solution. If the proposed new exit off the M62 gets the go-ahead it will take a lot of the traffic away."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.