A self-employed gardener from Stockport got to the root of the problem - when he helped rescue an elderly lady after a giant tree fell on her car.
Steven O’Donnell, owner of North West Landscape Group, was driving home from work on Wednesday evening when he saw the 70ft fallen tree across the front of a car.
Emergency services were on the scene at Mauldeth Road, Heaton Mersey , but did not have the equipment to shift the giant trunk.
So Steven and his employee Gaz Upton leapt out of the car and - using a chainsaw and their tree surgeon knowledge - chopped it up and then removed it piece by piece.
This allowed paramedics better access to the woman driver - who was in her 60s - and for her damaged car to be moved out of the way.
Steven, 35, of Heaton Chapel , said: “We had noticed a lot of people standing around and then realised why. It was a diseased tree and over a period of time it has decayed and then given way.
“We acted straight away, it was on the car so we chopped it up and moved it away. Paramedics arrived quickly but weren’t necessarily well equipped to deal with such an event.
“Another couple of feet and it would have been much more serious consequences as it would have been through the windscreen.
“The woman was shaken, imagine that coming down on your car when you’re driving in traffic.”
Steven, of Castlerigg Close, and Gaz, 27, had been travelling home after finishing the last of the day’s three jobs in Didsbury .
They also helped police stop traffic so paramedics could attend to the woman.
The incident happened around 7pm.
A spokesman for North West Ambulance Service said that the woman was in her 60s and had not been seriously injured.
She was given first aid and checked over but did not need hospital treatment.
Steven added: “I’d finished for the day, we had had three jobs. I had just rung home to ask for the tea to be put on.
“As excuses for being late go it was a good one and it was accepted. I got my tea heated up later when I got home.
“It isn’t something you would come across on a regular basis.”
