A Co Derry mother has had a lucky escape after a four foot long piece of metal pierced the bonnet of her car as she drove behind a lorry.
Louise Bain was on her way back from Antrim to Magherafelt along the Creagh Road just outside Toomebridge when the freak accident happened around 3.30pm on Wednesday afternoon.
She said she has now been left counting the cost, having been unable to notice the number plate of the lorry ahead of her as it drove on, nor even the colour of the vehicle as the rear was so dirty.
But she’s also well aware things could have been a lot more serious.
“I was just on my way back from shopping and the only thing I remember was a bang. I thought the car had been hit by a stone or a stick or something, but when I slowed down there was a long piece of metal sticking out of the bonnet right in front of me.
“I thought something must have fallen off the back of the lorry in front of me and hit the car,” she said. “But I was so shocked I didn’t even have a chance to get any details of the lorry as it drove on. You’re just so grateful the metal didn’t come through the window. It could have been a whole lot worse.”
While the damage is cosmetic to the front of her car, the metal hit her car with such force it pierced right through the bonnet.
After getting her engine checked, she was told the curved piece of metal could well have fallen off a trailer earlier in the day and been lying on the road.
Having been driven over by the lorry ahead of her, it could have been flipped up before embedding itself with force in her car.
“There seems to be no damage to the engine,” she said. “I’m thankful for that and I was able to drive home. But it was a very scary moment.
“Had I been driving another metre closer to the lorry the damage could have been a whole lot worse. It would have come straight through the front windscreen and who knows what the consequences would have been.
“This wasn’t my fault, but as there are no businesses with cameras along the road there’s no way of tracing who was responsible.
“If I have to put this through my own insurance the premiums will obviously go up and it will be me who pays for it.
“It will probably cost less just to have the bonnet replaced myself, but it’s still me paying for that thanks to someone else’s negligence.
”I have reported the incident to police, but realistically there’s very little they can do without dashcam or security camera evidence.
“I would like to see other road users take more care in looking after the vehicles they take onto the road,” she said.
“If that piece of metal did come off the back of a trailer then there’s someone out there driving a vehicle in a dangerous state.
“People who do take their vehicles onto the roads should make sure they’re in a fit state to be there. Someone else might not be as lucky as me next time,” added Louise.
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