Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District

Driver’s shock as large rock falls into his path Horror as boulder hurled from bridge

- By Marijke Hall mhall@thekmgroup.co.uk

A motorist whose car smashed into a boulder dropped from a bridge above the A2 says he and other drivers are lucky to have walked away alive.

Graham Redman had been driving home to Canterbury from London by Brenley Corner when he saw what looked like a big white bag “floating” above the road.

But within seconds, his car smashed into the hard object, which turned out to be a large white rock thrown from the bridge.

“It happened so quickly that I felt if I swerved to avoid it I could have smashed into an oncoming vehicle - consequent­ly I had no choice but to run into it,” he said.

“At this point the car crashed violently into the object and my vehicle shuddered to a stop.

“It turns out it was a large white boulder that had hit a car in front of us, smashing the windscreen and then bouncing off onto the highway.

“I am convinced had I not had a large, robust vehicle my car would probably have flipped over. It doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Mr Redman, of Beaconsfie­ld Road in Canterbury, says the other car had pulled over with damage to the windscreen and bonnet.

“It was a man driving his son to university,” he said.

“The boulder must have caught half his windscreen and half his bonnet. Lucky for him, otherwise he would have been a goner. “It was most horrid.” He added: “One person could not have lifted that boulder on their own.”

Mr Redman says the mechanic who fixed his Jaguar said he had never seen damage to a wheel like it.

The incident happened at around 6.30pm on Sunday, Feb- ruary 24, and was one of several involving objects being thrown from the bridge between 6pm and 7pm that evening.

Two people were injured, including Jon Barrett who had been travelling home to Dover with his wife Jackie when a brick was thrown through their windscreen.

Three boys, all aged 17, were arrested but released pending further enquiries.

Anyone with informatio­n is asked to call police on 01795 419119, quoting 46/36574/19, or Crimestopp­ers on 0800 555111.

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