A 90-YEAR-old war memorial has been totally destroyed after an early morning crash in Tremeirchion.
A male driver smashed his Land Rover Discovery into the memorial - which stands outside the primary school and village church - in the darkness of Wednesday morning, November 30.
“It has been obliterated, children would be dead if it was at 3pm rather than 3am,” said local resident Janice Baldwin-Evans.
“The vehicle has ploughed through the railings, destroyed the memorial, which is a big chunk of sand stone, knocked the church wall down and smashed into an old grave stone,” she added.
It has left the whole village shocked.
Another Tremeirchion resident reported the collision to the police at 8.34am.
The memorial was unveiled in September 1921, to remember the lives of those who fell in World War I. The names of the dead from World War II were added later.
“An expert stone mason from Ruthin, kindly attended the war memorial following the collision and on first inspection thought the damage had been caused by some sort of earth moving equipment,” said Ms Baldwin-Evans.
“He was shocked to hear it was actually a Range Rover that had caused the extensive damage,” she added.
The vehicle’s bumper was smashed and oil has leaked onto the road and onto the war memorial base.
The impact of the vehicle has bent back the railings surrounding the war memorial, but also pushed and twisted the monument back by several feet knocking over the large stone cross which stood on the base breaking it into several pieces.
The church wall was also destroyed and an old gravestone has snapped in two.
“The driver managed to push his car from on top of the memorial and parked it on the pavement, he returned in the morning and I heard him ask for a quote for the damage, but where on earth are we meant to get a quote from?” said Ms Baldwin-Evans.
The villagers regularly take care of the war memorial, planting seasonal plants and display fresh cut flowers throughout the year.
“The young and old consider the Tremeirchion war memorial to be very special precious part of our village and my nine-year-old daughter Sara, prior to Remembrance Sunday spent many hours repainting the lettering,” she added.
The war memorial and the young men named upon it, have recently been the subject of a book written and published by Tremeirchion resident David Littler Jones, who has an uncle named on the monument.
“The problem now is no one really owns the memorial, the older committee has disbanded and the parish council don’t own it, so we don’t know whose responsibility it is,” said Mr Littler Jones.
Tremeirchion county councillor Barbara Ann Smith, said: “The clerk for the community council is looking to see where the responsibility lies, and I will raise the issue of speeding in the town in the next community council meeting on Wednesday 14.”
A North Wales Police spokeswoman, said: “No one was injured and the vehicle has now been removed.”