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Cliff's close shave
JASON AVEDISSIAN and JOHN SIMPSON
01nov05
MANLY great Cliff Lyons is lucky to be alive after a power pole crushed his truck in Gosford yesterday.
The 43-year-old walked away from the accident shaken but unhurt.
Lyons, who works for Chris Reilly Scaffold ing, was waiting at traffic lights on his way to a job on the Central Coast when the pole fell, destroying the passenger side of his Mazda truck.
A rattled Lyons said he could have been killed.
``I just ducked down really quickly when it hit - there wasn't a thing I could have done about it,'' he said.
``I'm just a bit shaken and have a headache but other than that I'm fine.''
The cabin of Lyons's four-tonne Mazda truck received extensive damage when the pole fell. The pole was apparently weakened by termite infestation.
The incident happened at 6.30am yesterday on the Pacific Highway in West Gosford.
Lyons was driving to former Manly team mate Terry Hill's home at Daleys Point to deliver and install scaffolding.
Lyons's boss, Chris Reilly, said he would give his employee ``a bit of time off to recover''.
``He'll have as many days off as he wants,'' Mr Reilly said from Queensland last night.
``He can come back to work when he feels like he can.
``He's pretty lucky.
``If he'd had a passenger they might not have been so lucky.''
A spokeswoman for EnergyAustralia, which maintained the power pole, said it was inspected less than three years ago, in line with the industry standard, and passed inspection.
``We had no indication the pole was damaged but it appears it may have subsequently become affected by termites,'' she said.
EnergyAustralia has begun investigations into the incident.
Lyons played a record 309 games with the Sea Eagles, winning premierships in 1987 and 1996.
This year he led Narraweena to the Manly Warringah A grade competition title.
He is undecided if he will play next year.
