Shocking moment scaffolding collapses and 'catapults' workers 25ft on to road
The two men were 'catapulted' towards the ground by the falling scaffolding in Buckingham, forcing two cars on the road to quickly swerve to avoid crushing them
Frightening dashcam footage shows the dangerous moment scaffolding collapsed onto a busy high street - and 'catapulted' two workers 25 feet onto the tarmac.
Thomas Ambrose was driving through Buckingham town centre on March 6 when he noticed the one-storey scaffolding tipping away from a roadside building. Two men who were climbing a ladder on top of the structure were then suddenly thrown through the air and into the road.
The clip shows how car in front of 21-year-old Thomas managed to swerve and narrowly avoided hitting the pair by just inches after they fell to the ground. Miraculously, the workers in hi-vis jackets then quickly bounced to their knees. Thomas said they hobbled into a side street, while nearby pedestrians cleared the road.
Delivery driver Thomas says he was scared when he saw the scaffolding crumble so close to his car, but is relieved the men appear to have escaped serious injury. He could barely believe his eyes at the time of the accident, and quickly reviewed the footage from his dashcam as soon as he got home.
Describing what he saw, Thomas, from Buckingham, said: "The guy on the ladder caught my eye because he kind of got catapulted. It would have been a lot worse if he didn't bail out halfway through because he missed landing on the car or getting run over. He's lucky he's not been seriously injured. I assume they got up quickly because of the adrenaline but they did seem to be okay.
"My first thought was to brake and try to avoid the people on it. It was quite scary but I was relieved when I hadn't hit anyone and I saw them get up okay. They must have fallen from at least 25 feet. I'm surprised they didn't hurt themselves more.
"When I was driving away I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. It's the last thing I expected to see. I was relieved when I remembered I had the dashcam." Thomas says he posted the video to Facebook to find the driver of the car in front - which got hit by the ladder - so they could use it for insurance purposes. He says he doesn't know who the workers were or who they worked for.