Driver’s lucky escape as his mobile crane unit comes to grief on Fen road that was only resurfaced a repaired last year

A mobile crane unit became the latest casualty of a Fen road today after it came to grief on Farthings Drove between Sedge Fen and Shippea Hill near Ely.

The mobile unit, owned by Quinto of Leicester, dug deep into the side of the road before coming to a halt.

The driver escaped serious injury and recovery is under way.

Quinto has depots locally in Peterborough, King's Lynn, Norwich, Ipswich and Chelmsford.

The road caused controversy last year when it was closed for several weeks whilst Suffolk County Council carried out re-surfacing work. It had to be closed again later in the year when parts of the original re-surfacing failed, and potholes began appearing.

Angry villagers in Lakenheath took to social media today to call for better repairs to be carried out.

"It's been a total disaster and a lot of our money has just been wasted," wrote one villager.

"And it's still not right, we would have been better if they had done nothing."

One woman wrote that she returned along the road from Ely last week "and thought, the road had been done and it should be alright.

"But just where today's incident happened but on the other side of the road, I hit a pothole, and was lucky i didn't go off the road."

She felt that "we should be able to drive safely on our roads, without them becoming so dangerous, and especially after so much money has been poured into them.".

Another wrote: "I admit the road is a disgrace but if the driver runs off the road anywhere else in that area, he could have been in a water filled drain."