TWO massive glass recycling containers weighing around a tonne each took out a traffic light on a busy Ferndown road following a lorry crash yesterday.

Drivers faced hold-ups throughout the area after an articulated lorry and an East Dorset District Council recycling lorry collided on Ringwood Road at the junction with Church Road just after 10am.

Police closed Dudsbury Crescent, which was strewn with newspapers, glass and plastic containers, and stood re-directing traffic by the broken lights.

Ice-cream salesman Stan Cocklin was one of the first on the scene.

“There was debris everywhere. The cab of the articulated lorry was smashed to smithereens.”

No one was hurt and by 1.30pm, both the white Mercedes ‘Vigitrans’ goods vehicle, driven by a Slovenian man, and the white and green council box van had been recovered.

East Dorset District Council recycling depot supervisors Mark Prosser and Steve Turner were checking out the damage at the scene.

Mr Prosser said: “One of the three lads who were in the van has been sent home as he’s a bit shaken up. They’d just finished doing their first lot of recycling rounds and were going to the centre at Hurn to dispose of it.”

The men were driving from Church Road across to Dudsbury Crescent when the collision happened, and their lorry was spun around, coming to a halt across Dudsbury Crescent.

One onlooker said: “What a mess. I can’t see how on earth this happened.”

Police are investigating.