A barber has been left devastated after a car smashed through the front of his shop.
Darren Southworth was shocked when he awoke at 4.30am this morning, Saturday, February 7, to police knocking on his door.
The 57-year-old said officers had come to inform him that a car had ploughed into his barber shop, Darren’s Barbers, on Lee Lane in Horwich.
Photos show a crumbling wall next to the shop, which has been boarded up after the incident, and council workers cleaning up debris.
A passer-by said it looked like one side of the car had been “flattened”.
Darren, who has run his business for six years, said he is now “terrified” because the shop is his sole source of income and he does not know when he will be able to operate there again.
He wants all of his customers to know he intends to get back into the shop as soon as he can.
Darren said: “I am obviously absolutely devastated.
“I don’t know whether the people in the car are okay or not.
“That little shop is everything to me. I love everyone who comes in. Everyone’s always been really nice to me.
“I’m absolutely terrified because that’s my sole income.
“I have got my rent to pay like everybody else.”
He said he has been completely overwhelmed by the kindness of locals who heard about the accident and says three nearby barbers have already offered him a chair to work from at their shops.
Darren said: “I’m so grateful for all the messages people have sent me on Facebook.
“It makes me feel like they care about me.
“I’m grateful everybody is doing that. It makes me feel so special.
“I want people to know that my intention is that I want to get back to that shop and get back working.”
He said once he knows where he is able to work, he will put a message out on social media and pin a note to his shop to let people know.
A resident of Lee Lane said it looked as if the car had damaged the crash barriers along the side of the road and her recycling bin had been smashed up too.
Darren said the strangest thing about the accident was that he has a framed newspaper article dated April 23, 1927 that tells the story of exactly the same thing happening.
He said the article said in the accident, that happened almost a century ago, the car’s brakes failed and there were two fatalities.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed there were life-threatening injuries as a result of the crash but no fatalities and are investigating.
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