Deadly danger was averted by the quick reaction of Toss Bryan's store manager Pat Kent on Saturday evening last when he spotted a driverless 30-tonne steamroller heading from the site beside the store on the Courthouse Road out onto the N72 where a line of traffic was stopped at the temporary traffic lights.

Pat rushed over onto the site, managed to climb aboard the 30-tonne runaway machine and halt it just yards from the road. "I shudder to think what might have happened," Pat said of the machine's close encounter with the line of vehicles.

The machine was parked on Lagan Construction's site where the earthern embankments are presently being built up as part of the flood relief works. A variety of heavy machinery is working there at present. Preparing to close the store for the day, Pat was bringing in lawnmowers from outside at around 5.30pm when he heard a machine start up and, knowing that there were no workmen on site that day, he became alarmed and climbed up on pallets to look in over the fence to see what was happening. To his horror he spotted the steamroller in motion.

"I just reacted, I didn't see any danger for myself," Pat told The Avondhu this week. "I was just in the right place at the right time," he said. He managed to climb aboard the machine and bring it to a stop. "It was about 30 yards from the road by then," he said.

While Pat was being modest about his role in safeguarding the vehicles stopped at the lights and their occupants, store owner Tom Bryan paid tribute to him, saying: "He's a very responsible guy. He really was on the ball that evening."

Pat says it was only when he got home that evening and thought about it that he realised the extent of the danger involved. While no-one was taking the matter lightly, it's reported that Pat was being dubbed 'Clark Kent' aka Superman by his workmates and given a good-natured teasing over his heroics.

Gardai were called on Saturday evening and arrived within minutes at the scene.  It's understood they apprehended four youths and have questioned them as part of their investigation into the incident. Lagan Construction undertook their own investigation and were taking the matter very seriously, liaison officer Cian O'Sullivan told The Avondhu on Wednesday. "The incident came just a week after Lagan Construction suffered major vandalism of their works on the bridge in Fermoy, having signage and a number of traffic cones removed from the site and dumped into the river," he said.

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