QUESTIONS were being asked this week of Wellington Town Council after an elderly woman fell from a controversial new back-less bench installed earlier this year on the corner of South Street and Fore Street.

The £3,500 curved bench attracted negative social media publicity at the time with residents worried that it was too close to the road and people could fall, or young children run out, in front of traffic.

The ‘accident waiting to happen’, happened on Thursday of last week (July 21) when a woman suffered a dizzy spell and fell backwards and cracked open the back of her head on the kerbing.

Shocked passers-by rushed to help, including two women who stayed with the casualty and her daughter until paramedics arrived.

The injured woman, who asked not to be named, was taken by ambulance to Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, where she was released the same evening after treatment.

One of the helpers, mother-of-three Claire Radford told the Wellington Weekly: “We were trying to keep her calm and although she was conscious she seemed disoriented.

“She was bleeding from the back of her head and I was keeping an eye on her pulse.

“She had rolled diagonally under the bench and because the bench is so close to the road there was not a lot of room without standing in the traffic.

“When the paramedics came they had to try to move her out from under the bench and it was quite tricky for them.

“Someone said to me they thought she got a bit dizzy and collapsed and fell backwards.”

The other helper, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Wellington Weekly: “My friend has some medical training so we went to see if we could help and she started to triage the lady.

“All I could do was hold her hand and keep talking to her, letting her know what was happening and that her daughter was nearby and help would be here soon.

“We kept the sun off her face using a gentleman’s jacket.

“The lady had a laceration to the back of her head which was bleeding quite badly and she seemed a bit confused.”

Town councillor Marcus Barr, who voted against the bench when the council was deciding on it last year, said: “It is really upsetting to hear that something like this has happened after people were warning us about it.

“Thankfully, it did not turn out to be any worse than it was, although it was clearly a shocking thing for all who were involved.

“Hopefully, the council will learn lessons from the incident and give more consideration to the design and siting of any future benches we install.”

Town clerk Dave Farrow: said: “First of all, we are obviously sorry to hear about this accident and hope that the person concerned is OK.

“The style and location of the bench were approved by the town council’s town centre committee, and Somerset County Council’s highways department approved the bench location.

“The manufacturer of the bench is a national company and the style of bench is used in town centres and other public spaces across the UK.”