Mother tells of car attack terror in lane
A MOTHER has described the terrifying moment she was attacked while driving down quiet country lanes after “a large object” hit the windscreen of her car.
Vicky Thomasson was driving through the narrow lanes near Pendoylan, in the Vale of Glamorgan, at around 9.30pm on Friday.
The 33 year old, from Pontyclun, decided to take the route after junction 33 and 34 of the M4 had been closed.
But after something hit the windscreen of her car, she was forced to “slam on the brakes” and get out to see what was going on.
She was then “hit quite hard by a person” and suffered injuries to her face, before headlights from approaching cars disrupted the incident and brought the ordeal to an end.
“The M4 was closed, so I decided to go through the lanes,” she said. “I don’t know why I decided to do that.
“I should have gone through Cowbridge really, but I thought I was safe in the car.”
Vicky described how there were two cars travelling in front of her, but after stopping to let someone out from a junction, she was left alone in the lanes.
“Around two minutes later something flew into my windscreen,” she said. “It was so big, I thought it might have been a person. I braced myself for what was coming.
“I expected a loud bang – but there was nothing. I thought, what on earth was that?”
Vicky got out of the vehicle in an attempt to find out what had hit her windscreen.
“There was something in the road,” she said. “At first, I didn’t know what it was. It looked like a sleeping bag.”
Vicky says she was then attacked by a person standing in front of her.
“The frightening thing is, I didn’t see anything or anyone. It was pitch black – you couldn’t see a thing,” she said.
“All of a sudden, someone came out of nowhere and hit me. I just thought, oh my God – what is happening?
“And then they were gone. I turned around and there were cars pulling up behind me.”
Vicky quickly jumped into her car and started driving away. “I rang my mum. I was hysterical,” she said. “I didn’t have time to register what was going on, before the cars came behind me and I got back into my car. As I set off, I realised – oh my God, I’ve just been hit.
“I can’t say how far down the lanes I was. I can’t remember. I think I was in autopilot.” Vicky drove straight to her parents’ house in Pontyclun, and tried to piece together what had just happened. “My dad was trying to cheer me up, but my mum just phoned the police.” As well as a black eye, Vicky says she was also left with a lump and bruise to her cheek.
“I had a massive lump on my cheek, but that’s gone down a bit now and it’s just bruised,” she said.
“I was wearing glasses too, so they hit those onto my nose and it gave me a black eye.”
In a bid to raise awareness about what happened, Vicky posted about her ordeal on Facebook – and the post has been shared more than 2,000 times.
“I just put the post up to warn my friends – I didn’t expect it to get the reaction it has had,” she said. “Loads of people have been messaging me, saying they had never even thought about what could happen by stopping in dark places.
“I know there’s no chance the police will find the person who did this to me.
“I haven’t really been able to give them much. But the last thing I want is people having a go at them [the police].
“I wasn’t able to provide them with an exact location or say whether the person was male or female.
“There’s not much they can do and it’s totally not their fault – they can’t work on nothing.”
Vicky now says that she will “never, ever drive down those lanes ever again – not even in the day”.
She added: “I’m still in shock – people have been asking me if I’m traumatised, but I’m still taking it all in.
“I’ll probably sit down at some point, and it will all hit me.
“It might have been kids messing about – I just don’t know. I’ve got no proof of anything.”
South Wales Police did not respond to our requests for a comment.
It might have been kids messing about – I just don’t know. I’ve got no proof of anything.