Man praised for quick response after sinister find spread across three lanes of Cairns road
A Far North Queensland pizza shop worker has been praised for his quick actions after discovering nails sprawled across three lanes of a local road.
Ryan Assenberg, who works at Joes Pizza, said he spent Tuesday night sweeping away stray nails that he found covering three lanes of the busy Mulgrave Road in Earlville, Cairns.
The 22-year-old used a yellow wet floor cone and a plastic chair from the restaurant to block off the traffic while he worked to clean up the debris on the road.
“I was closing the pizza shop and someone came in and said they had nails in their tyres,” Mr Assenberg told Yahoo News Australia.
“So I ran out with the broom and started clearing one lane, then ran back in to grab the cone and a white chair to close two lanes, and directed traffic through one lane that was clear.
“A car stopped to help close the two lanes and I continued to sweep until they were all gone.”
He then shared a picture to a local Facebook page warning other motorists to take care on the road near the pizza shop where he works.
“Check tyres for flats, Earlville shopping centre outside Joe's Pizza heading into town,” he warned.
“All 3 lanes were covered with nails.”
Mr Assenberg said he called triple-0 for help in closing the lanes of traffic, but “had it all done and dusted before they came”.
Other residents praised the young man for helping keep the road safe for others, in what could have otherwise led to a catastrophe.
“Good on you!! Deserve a beer!!!” one wrote.
One woman said she was the first driver to approach the site after it was cleaned up, and thanked the man for saving her from potentially landing in strife.
“Thank you so much... I would have been straight over them. Well done,” she commented.
But not everyone was as lucky. He said one driver was left with three flat tyres after unknowingly driving over the nails.
“Most likely why one of my tyres are flat right now,” a woman wrote, thanking the man for cleaning up the mess.
Another angry driver said he had just put new tyres on his car to find one of them was flat after driving down Mulgrave Road.
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