By Hayley Gastmeier
Contractors yesterday removed Caltex Solway’s badly damaged canopy which partially crashed to the ground when a car speed through the service station’s forecourt earlier this month.
Masterton man Aaron Coley, 31, had allegedly fleeing police when his car ploughed into a petrol bowser and wiped out a support beam to the forecourt roof.
He appeared in the Masterton District Court on Thursday facing charges of dangerous driving, failing to stop for police and failing to remain at the scene of an accident and was remanded on bail without plea until August 15.
Yesterday five staff from Quality Demolition & Contracting Ltd worked to remove and dismantle the roof on High St.
Owner Shane Gray, now from Wellington but originally from Wairarapa, said the job wasn’t a challenge but took all day.
“We’re putting it on a truck and taking it away.
“We’re taking it down the road to dismantle it, just off the site and away from the pumps and the gas station as such, then it will all be going to the tip.”
Caltex Solway owner Kevan Dudson plans to have the service station re-opened and trading on August 8.
But replacing the canopy could take up to six months, he said.
