An Addiscombe man's life was saved because he overslept and avoided being hit by a lorry which crashed into the front of his home.
The Wimbledon tram was passing Addiscombe tram stop at 10.50am on February 7 when the lorry drove across the level crossing on Bingham Road and its rear end hit the front of the tram.
The lorry hit a traffic light and destroyed a Telewest box before knocking down a brick wall outside a Bingham Road house.
Kemal Kaplan-Kiran, had been working late with his wife Firdefs and his 21 year-old son at the Beckenham kebab shop he owns and were asleep at the time of the crash.
Mr Kaplan-Kiran told the Guardian: "I was awoken by the crash and when I opened my front door I just couldn't believe what I saw."
"At that time I would normally be getting ready to go out the door but on this occasion I had over-slept.
A policeman said: "The lorry travelled along two wheels before going into the house."
The driver of the lorry was taken to Mayday hospital to be treated for back pain.
Policemen remained on the scene to warn drivers approaching the level crossing, after the traffic lights stopped working and the lorry was removed at 1.30pm.
Mr Kaplan and his family now wish to move out of their home after the lorry ground to a halt inches from their front door.
He said: "There are a lot of accidents in this road. We are so near the tram stop and I no longer feel safe here.
Mr Kaplan, who has a 18 year-old daughter at Old Palace school added: "The only thing I am happy about is the fact no one was hurt."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article