Cllr Phil Cantwell with the large round bale which fell from a trailer at Patrick Street, Trim, just minutes after a young family had walked past the spot.

A large round bale of hay which fell from a tractor-trailer onto the footpath of a busy Trim street could easily have killed someone, a local councillor has claimed.

At about 1.30pm last Saturday, a trailer carrying large round bales of straw stacked three rows high was travelling down Patrick Street from the traffic lights to the ring road when one of the large bales, weighing about quarter of a ton, fell about 10 feet onto the footpath where a woman and young children had walked by only a few minutes beforehand, according to independent town councillor, Phil Cantwell.

"If this large bale had fallen onto this woman and young children - one on a tricycle - serious injury, or perhaps death, would have been the result," he said.