Leo Rice and his son James with their car which was written off after the car clipped a pothole and lost control near Donagh Picture: Ronan McGrade
A DRIVING instructor and his two young sons have had a lucky escape after his car was written-off when he struck a pothole and collided with a tree.
Leo Rice (43) was taking his young son Conor (12) to football training at around 6.30 on Monday night when he says his car clipped the pothole, causing him to lose control and hit the tree at Royal Oak Road in Donagh, Lisnaskea.
Mr Rice’s other son James (4) was also in the car at the time.
“It was very wet at the time and the pothole was full of water so it was difficult to see at the time. You wouldn’t see it even with the headlights. It’s about 15cm deep and one metre wide. I have travelled the road quite often but I wasn’t on it for a few weeks. The only reason I went that way was to take a short cut to get Conor to football training on time,” he said.
All three escaped without serious injury, but the car, a Toyota Auris, has been declared a write-off.
Mr Rice, a driving instructor for 22 years, said: “I’m still shaken up by it. James has a couple of scratches and Conor, who was the front seat passenger, is a bit reluctant to get back into the car again.”
Mr Rice, who runs Leo’s Driving School in Newtownbutler, Lisnaskea and Enniskillen, believes that his car saved his life and those of his children.
“I’m glad that it was a Toyota I was driving and I honestly believe that is what saved us. When the airbags came up and the white smoke appeared Conor was panicking that the car was on fire. My main priority was to get them out safely.”
The incident has left Mr Rice out of pocket to the tune of over £12,000 in lost revenue from cancelled driving lessons and having to buy a new car.
“I normally have five lessons a day so I’m trying to source a hire car from Belfast to tide me over. I had hoped to get another year out of the car before I changed it but now it is being forced upon me.”
He added: “Given my line of work, I’m on the road a lot and I know that many of our local roads are deteriorating. I just hope that it won’t take a fatal accident for something to be done about it as has happened in the past. While we very lucky, that might not be the case next time”.
SDLP Cllr Richie McPhillips says the Rice family were “very fortunate”, adding that he expected the pothole to be filled in as a matter of urgency.
“It’s a word of warning for people to be cautious on our roads at the minute because they are in bad shape after all of the bad weather recently. I have been in touch with the Roads Service and I expect them to have the pothole dealt with in the coming days,” he said.
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