Driver’s shock ordeal

Young woman terrified after stranger bashed car door, window

A YOUNG Toowoomba woman has described a terrifying moment she believed a stranger standing in the middle of the road would attack her.

The woman was giving a male workmate a lift home after work on Friday when she was forced to stop the car to avoid hitting a man standing in the middle of the road in Kearneys Spring.

The woman was driving on Stenner St approaching the West St intersection just after midnight Friday when she spotted the man standing on the roadway.

Slamming on her brakes, the pair in the car watched as the man approached the vehicle and tried to smash the driver-side window.

The woman froze on the spot as her passenger put the car in gear and fled from the scene, swerving around the man on the road.

While she was not physically injured, the woman has been left with lingering psychological impacts of the ordeal and in fear for her own personal safety.

She has gone public on the condition of anonymity in order to raise awareness of the incident, and urge others – particularly young girls – to be vigilant when driving around the city at night.

“If she was by herself we are sure the outcome would have been different,” a family member told The Chronicle.

“She is a beautiful quiet girl who has been left shaken.

“We just want people to know that Toowoomba is a beautiful city but no longer isolated from what most believe are ‘big city’ incidents.”

The woman told her family of the incident and reported it to Toowoomba police.

A police spokesman said it was important the occupants of any car knew where the locks were inside the vehicle, and how to engage and disengage them in an emergency situation.

The spokesman advised people who came across situations to not engage and contact police immediately.