A TRUCK driver wedged an articulated lorry in a narrow lane after following sat-nav instructions.

The Chinese State Circus lorry is believed to have been travelling to Plymouth when it got jammed at a turning in Nottington.

The lorry was stuck for several hours after bringing down an overhead power cable which had to be made safe before the vehicle could be recovered.

Bemused local residents turned out to assist the vehicle’s ‘apologetic’ driver, followed by electrical engineers and police officers who made the area safe and helped unblock the road.

Sally Willis, a delivery co-ordinator, said she saw the ERF lorry coming down Nottington Lane at around 8.30pm on Monday shortly before it got stuck.

She said: “When I saw it, I thought to myself: ‘That doesn’t look very good.’ “Then I heard this horrible crunch on the corner and spent the rest of the evening helping out.”

She added: “The driver said his sat-nav had told him to come down this way, which I can quite believe.

“We’ve had a number of coaches coming down here in the past and they really shouldn’t.”

Weymouth magistrate and Nottington resident Val Brinton said she heard the lorry’s engine running and the police arrive at the scene.

She said: “The lorry had got stuck on a bollard and they had to send down this fantastic piece of equipment to recover it, but that didn’t happen until about 11.30pm.

“It had brought down a power cable which left a burn mark on the side of the lorry.

“The electrical board workers were brilliant and were up ladders in the rain making the cable safe.

“It did cause quite a lot of traffic problems.”

Mrs Brinton added: “The driver, who was Hungarian, kept saying how sorry he was and I heard that it had been caused by a sat-nav.

“It may be a shorter route for cars to come this way if they’re going towards Portesham and Abbotsbury but not for a great big lorry like that.”

South Dorset MP Jim Knight lives near the scene of the accident although he was in London at the time.

He said: “I had a phone call from my wife Anna at around 9pm to say that a Chinese State Circus pantechnicon being driven by a Hungarian man had got stuck nearby.

“I was just coming back from a meeting with some cabinet members at the PM’s flat when I got the call.”

He added: “It is perhaps easier for me to see the funny side of it from a distance because I’m not the one there dealing with the traffic and the consequences of it.”