TWO Lancaster workmen had a lucky escape this week after a metal girder fell onto their heads as they worked at Storeys Wallpaper on White Lund.

Both men escaped serious injury but were taken to hospital where they both received stitches to head wounds.

They told the Citizen that they hoped to return to work soon.

One of the workers, Chris Steel of Rochester Avenue, remembered: "We were just working and I heard this 'ping.' I found out later that was the chain snapping from the winch. The next thing I remember is trying to stem the flow of blood. I knew to do it because I'm a first aider. I put myself in the recovery position and could feel myself passing out. The other first aiders came and did a really good job talking to me and keeping me conscious.

"I have complete faith in my fellow workers in incidents like that. I ended up with six stitches and two internal stitches. They told me I was very lucky. A little further forward and my skull would have been fractured. I'm slightly concussed and I've been told to sign off for a week."

His fellow worker, Brian Johnstone, 55 of Lincoln Close, was also told they were extremely lucky not to have been severely injured. He said: "I heard a ping and then there was this huge clattering. I sat on the floor and waited for the first aiders who came in a couple of minutes. My mate was worse than me. I only had three or four stitches. We were very lucky."

The girder fell from a hoist. Production manager at the factory, Brian Williams, said he believed the hoist was recently bought and had been checked by insurers in the last five weeks. The accident is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive. Police went to Storeys to make preliminary investigations.

Mr Williams commented: "We are absolutely flabbergasted that this happened. We're fairly sure this was among equipment checked within the last five weeks by our insurers. We've been in touch with the hospital as you can imagine and were just relieved to hear our workers weren't very badly hurt."

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