On Tuesday 4th July 1893, Mr James Sommerville of the Blantyre business H&J Sommerville (Aerated Water Manufacturers) had the most miraculous escape.
He was in Hamilton that afternoon delivering his fizzy water to Cadzow Rows when his horse suddenly bolted and dashed headlong down the steep hill there. Seeing the danger, Mr Sommerville at great risk caught hold of the runaway animal and forcibly dragged it into a side street.
Still attached to the lorry (cart), the horse caused the wheel to catch on two nearby water barrels and the lorry was completely overturned!
Mr Sommerville was completely trapped below the lorry. However, thankfully one of his crates of lemonade had turned on its side and the lorry landed on it, propping it up some 18 inches from the ground and it was there in that space that Mr Sommerville lay, uncrushed and relatively unscathed apart from some wounds from broken glass. He was completely drenched in the water from the two barrels.
Had the crate been a mere few inches to the left or right, the lorry would have fallen on to Mr Sommerville and rescuers at the time were in no doubt, he would have died otherwise.
