A Chatham-area couple is feeling lucky after surviving a large tree falling on the all-terrain vehicle they were driving during a sudden, severe storm that blew through the Rondeau Bay area.
Henry Boswell, 53, and his girlfriend Carlita Melo, 45, of Shrewsbury had just turned south from New Scotland Line onto Kent Bridge Road Monday afternoon when a large tree fell on them. The couple credits the cab from a side-by-side Kubota ATV for saving their lives.
“I’m very blessed and very thankful for being here today,” Melo said during an interview with The Chatham Daily News. “It was a miracle. It was like somebody was watching over us.”
Boswell said it was sunny when they left Shrewsbury to go check on a tree stand near Rondeau Bay, but “all hell broke loose” as they turned onto Kent Bridge Road and it began to pour rain, he said.
“Boom, the wind came up” he said, recalling that a smaller branch fell in front of the ATV.
Boswell was going to get out and move it because a car was coming the other way, but Melo told him to stay inside.
“We stopped for two seconds and bam, that (tree) was right on us,” he said.
Melo said the impact pressed them down in the vehicle. They had to climb out the back window, Boswell said. The glass from the ATV’s cab went everywhere when the tree landed on it, he said.
“It was like an explosion,” he said.
Added Melo: “We’re still picking glass off our skin. It was a pretty bad situation.”
Boswell said there is still some glass on his skin, which feels like fibreglass insulation.
Melo said they didn’t start to feel any pain from the impact until Tuesday because they were still in shock.
“It’s just amazing how the Kubota saved our lives,” Boswell said.
Chatham-Kent police said there were no injuries from the tree falling on the ATV and work crews removed the trees and repaired fallen power wires.
Ken Bell was under an awning at his Shrewsbury home when the storm system was coming through on Monday.
“Then, the wind picked up really, really strong for about thirty seconds or close to a minute.”
Bell said the rain changed from coming down in drops “into almost a white mist. It was just an odd thing.”
When the storm passed, Bell got a text about damage in the Rondeau Provincial Park area so he decided to ride his bike over to check it out when he encountered the tree down on the ATV in which Boswell and Melo were riding.
He spoke to the couple at the scene and learned they were not injured.