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Lorry crashes into pedestrian entrance of Hunton Primary School

Primary school pupils were lucky not to be hurt when a lorry crashed into the pedestrian entrance of their school on Thursday.

The cement-mixing lorry collided with the metal railings at Hunton Primary School's entrance at around 11am.

Its wheel became caught in the railing, and the lorry mounted the verge at the side of the road as a result, damaging part of the hedge running along the side of the school playground.

Nobody was hurt in the incident.

This accident involved one of an increased number of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) currently travelling through the village.

The vehicle in question was travelling to the development of facilities at Amsbury Farm, where Fruition PO Ltd, a farmers cooperative based in Whitstable, is expanding operations.

Fruition has said however that the incident did not involve any of their vehicles.

Rob King, general manager of Fruition, said: "The development at Amsbury Farm is a modernisation of an existing facility.

We are unaware of the incident to which you refer, but if it was caused by a contractor associated any of the works on the site, we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused."

This incident occurred just days before a parish council meeting which will discuss road safety through the village.

Hunton is currently served by two main roads; East Street, where Amsbury Farm is located, and West Street, which serves the school.

There are many traffic problems on these roads, as there is no pavement, except a small stretch outside the school, and both roads are windy.

This means that there are many blind junctions, and unfortunately many opportunities for incidents like this to occur.

There are also parking problems outside the school at pick-up and drop-off times.

Earlier this year a mother and her child were lucky not to be injured when a passing car had to take evasive action to avoid hitting another vehicle, and hit the woman's open door as she was seating her child.

Although East Street is a residential road, the speed limit is 60mph. The speed limit on West Street is 30mph.

The county-wide Speedwatch scheme has been adopted in the village, and one local resident, who did not wish to be named, told the Kent Messenger that Hunton's Speedwatch team recorded that one in 11 cars was going too fast outside the school.

They did also note however that many drivers slow down when they see them, so the data may not be accurate.

The driver of the lorry initially left the scene, but later returned to leave his details.

Police were called, but as the driver returned and nobody was hurt, it was not considered to be a police matter.

Hunton Parish Council and Kent County Council have been approached for comment in relation to this incident.

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