Local builder cuts taxi free after tree crashes down on it in Coventry

[dutchman]

The incident happened on Kenilworth Road this afternoon



A local builder came to the rescue when Storm Eunice blew a tree down onto a moving taxi in Coventry.

The incident happened on Friday afternoon (February 18) amid treacherous weather which has seen winds of 60mph battering the city.

Its ferocity led to one of the many trees which lines Kenilworth Road near the War Memorial Park coming down and landing on a black cab.

One man was on his way home from work when he passed the scene and saw his brother's work van parked up.

Stopping to see if he was OK, he found his builder brother setting about the fallen tree with tools from his van.

Paul Allsopp told CoventryLive: "I was just on my home from work and I could see the tree was down and I saw my brother’s van was there and he was using a hand saw cutting a taxi free.

"He’s a builder so he had his tools in the van. He had pulled up in front and saw the taxi was trapped so he started cutting the branches away from it.

"I believe no-one was hurt or injured - I think it was more the shock of it. It blocked the whole road. It was one of those big old oak trees they have down there."

Paul's brother, self-employed builder Craig Allsopp, is obviously handy with his tools as fire crews from Coventry were called to the scene but when they arrived their "assistance was not needed".

"You could talk to Craig about it but he'd probably just talk it down and say 'all I did was cut some branches'," Paul laughed.

Paul's belief that no-one was hurt was confirmed by West Midlands Ambulance Service who told CoventryLive they were not called to the scene.

Trinity Taxis was advertised on the back of the black cab hit, but they were in the dark on the situation.

They said: "We've not heard about it. All of our drivers are self-employed, sometimes taxis have numbers on but it doesn't necessarily mean they work or even drive for us.

"The licencing committee for the council provide the licences."