Christmas tree truck gets stuck in Irondequoit
A driver of a large flatbed truck filled with Christmas trees found himself in difficulty around 5 this morning after making a wrong turn on Titus Avenue in Irondequoit.
Irondequoit Police officers on scene said that the driver was in the process of delivering the trees to the Boy Scouts, who sell the trees as part of a fundraising activity behind the Irondequoit United Church of Christ, 644 Titus Ave.
However, the driver, whose truck had Pennsylvania license plates, told officers that he had delivered trees to the church for years, but became confused by the first of the new Route 590 roundabouts, and turned right onto the Titus Avenue extension from the roundabout, instead of continuing to follow the roundabout onto Titus Avenue.
The driver soon found himself at the bottom of a hill on Shore Drive, where the roads are very narrow. After making a turn on a sharp curve on Shore Drive, the driver attempted to back his truck up, but instead the truck slid down a short incline into the front yard of 94 Shore Dr., where it came to rest against a large tree in the yard.
“My thought is that a drunk driver had driven into my yard,” said Ellen Prill, who has lived at 94 Shore for going on five years. “When I actually woke up and was able to look and see, I saw that it was a huge flatbed truck filled with Christmas trees. The person who was driving the truck went into my pine tree about three times. I was afraid that might come down, but it didn’t.”
Prill said the driver made several attempts to free the truck from her yard.
“I called 911 after about 20 minutes, because I could see there was no way he was going to get the truck out,” Prill said. “He was trying to get it out of there, but it was slightly airborne.”
A heavy-duty tow truck from Ray Kerhaert’s Towing & Repair arrived to try to help the driver out of his predicament. As neighbors gathered to watch the scene, the truck’s trailer was pulled from the yard back onto the roadway.
Because Shore Drive is so narrow, the truck driver had significant trouble backing the truck up. After several more adjustments from the tow truck, the Christmas tree truck was finally able to back up and leave the area, more than three hours after the incident began.
Most of the damage to Prill’s yard occurred very near the leach field around a septic tank.
“I am going to have to have some people come out and look at the tree and look at the septic,” Prill said.
What is most important, she said, is that there were no injuries.
“I feel sorry for the (driver) because it wasn’t purposeful. He went down the wrong road and lost his way. And that is easy to do around here.”
