A local resident in Grangemouth, Scotland, told Sky News that he saw the car in which the 84-year-old man was traveling before it hit a fallen tree, “swerve and suddenly stop.”
Paul Smith exited the M9 onto the A905 on Sunday night in severe weather conditions.
After stopping at a set of traffic lights, he said he saw a car on the road in front of him “kind of swerve and stop suddenly.”
“I could see in the distance that there were a lot of trees,” Mr. Smith said.
“I thought the best idea was to turn back and go the other way. At that point I didn't actually realize a car had hit a tree, I thought maybe it had just stopped and couldn't get through.”
Mr Smith said it was only after hearing the news this morning that the man – who was a front seat passenger in the car – died after the collision.
“It's really sad, Grangemouth is a really small community, everyone knows everyone,” he said in response to the news.
“When it happens close to home, it has an impact on the community, and people feel sad.”
He described driving conditions during Storm Isha as “horrendous”, adding that it was “the worst storm Scotland has seen in 10 years”.
“The city was destroyed”
Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, a councilor from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council said the death of a man in his 60s, after the lorry he was driving collided with a fallen tree and another lorry, had “devastated the town”.
“When you wake up to this news this morning, it has just left the city in shock and devastation,” Ashlyn Schenning said.
Police said the accident occurred on Broad Road in Limavady at around 9.45pm on Sunday.
Councilor Shinning said several trees fell throughout the town during the storm.
