Girls narrowly avoid disaster(run over by truck, walk away)

MERRIMACK – Two 11-year-old girls will have quite a story to tell when they return to school today after the holiday.

Police say both girls escaped serious injury late Monday afternoon when a service van backed over the two as they slid down a driveway on a pair of plastic sleds.

The incident happened at about 4:25 p.m. at 23 Windover Lane, and the mother of one of the girls called police to report that the girls had been run over by an EnergyNorth propane van that had failed to stop.

The woman reported that the girls, who had been sledding down a path in front of the home, had run into the house saying that they had been run over by the van that had been parked at the residence on a service call, Merrimack Lt. Richard Desmond said. Police later stopped the van and its horrified operator, Charles E. LeVeille, on Joppa Road.

LeVeille told police that he didn’t realize he had hit anything and followed the cruiser back to the residence where police began an investigation into the incident, Desmond said. “He was very upset and shaken up,” Desmond said.

Police determined that as LeVeille had slowly backed up the van, the two girls had slid side by side between the two sets of wheels of the vehicle. The investigation is ongoing.

Desmond said because of their size the two girls narrowly missed the tires on each side of the service van and only received minor scratches and bruising from the van’s undercarriage.

Both girls were taken to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, where they were treated and released, he said.

My son and his fiance were driving home Sunday night when a pick up truck ran a red light and ran into Mary's side of the car. The truck ended up on its side facing the opposite direction. My son's car went out of control and curved to the left, speeding toward high power lines and a gas station. He had no control over steering, the truck had hit the front right wheel and it was permanently turned to the left then. He couldn't get the brakes to work. He went right past the power lines and was headed toward gas pumps. This all happened in a flash. His emergency brake was in the middle of the front seat. Mary grabbed it and pulled it up and the car stopped a few feet from a gas pump. IF the power lines had come down, if they had hit that gas pump, they would have been killed in a huge firey crash. As it was they got out of the car [Chrysler Cirrus] and walked away. Some passersby pulled the man out of his pickup truck. He asked them to help him hide his beer. He claimed he had a green light. He got a ticket for running a red light. Gary & Mary are very sore, but hopefully they will heal. They are in their twenties, so they have youth and health on their side. I told them they may have some lingering ache or pain from the wreck, but it will get less and less painful all the time. Gary sure hates losing his first car! Which was just paid for in November!!!!!!!!!! But a car is just a car. I can't replace my Gary & Mary! Now I tell them all the time how much I love them. Their guardian angels must have been working overtime, just as the two little girls' in the story! THANK GOD!

EnergyNorth propane van that had failed to stop.

Now wait a minute...

The woman reported that the girls, who had been sledding down a path in front of the home

Who failed to stop???

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