LOTTERY winner Peter Lavery is said to be well on the road to recovery after being hit by a bus in Belfast city centre on Monday.
The 61-year-old Short Strand man was one of two people taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital following the collision in Donegall Square West adjacent to the City Hall just before 9am on Monday morning. After getting stitches to a head wound and being subject to a battery of scans, the well-known businessman is on course to be released from hospital today or tomorrow.
A friend told Belfast Media that Peter is "recovering well".
"He is a very lucky man," they said.
"It's like he's won the lottery twice."
Peter won £10.2m in the Lottery in 1996 and subsequently immersed himself in business and charitable works. He is the co-owner of a new distillery in the Titanic Quarter, which began whiskey production in August.
A spokesperson for the Ambulance Service said it received a 999 call at 8.58am on Monday.
“Following assessment and initial treatment at the scene, two patients were taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital by ambulance.”
The issue of buses in the city centre has long been a cause of safety concern and the two streets on either side of City Hall are thronged daily with buses. SDLP Councillor Gary McKeown is the latest to speak out.
"This is a very busy part of our city centre with pedestrians crossing all the time," he said, "and it's clear that there’s a major risk, so the authorities can’t simply sit back and do nothing while we wait for someone else to be hurt or killed."
