My terror at being shunted sideways along motorway at 60mph by 'oblivious' tanker driver

My terror at being shunted sideways along motorway at 60mph by 'oblivious' tanker driver

By James Tozer

Last updated at 8:52 AM on 22nd March 2010

• Comments (47)
  
• Add to My Stories
  

One moment, Rona Williams was driving along the motorway thinking about her forthcoming day at work as a vet.

The next, she was being shunted sideways at 60mph, trapped beneath the front bumper of a tanker whose driver did not even notice she was there.

Her terrifying ordeal was captured on film by a passenger in another car on the A1(M) near Leeds and has been viewed millions of times since it was posted on YouTube last week.

The Mail has tracked down 31-year-old Mrs Williams to her home in York, and she revealed her ordeal was just as terrifying as it looked. As her Renault Clio was pushed along, she screamed: 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die.'

Mrs Williams had just joined the motorway ten minutes away from her surgery in Garforth when her car was apparently clipped by the lorry and ended up under its bumper. 'I just felt a knock and then I was travelling sideways – twisted 90 degrees clockwise,' she said.

She yanked on her handbrake, sounded her horn and flashed her hazard lights, but to no avail.

'I kept thinking, "Nobody knows I'm here. Nobody has seen me",' she said. 'I tried everything.

I was watching other cars, thinking, "Help me, just help me" – but they didn't seem to be doing very much.'

Terrified the lorry was going to ram her into the crash barrier, Mrs Williams grabbed her mobile phone from her handbag.

'I wasn't on hands-free, but I figured I wasn't really driving the car,' she said. 'I just screamed at the operator, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die! Can you do something?"

'She tried to calm me down but there wasn't really anything she could do at the end of the phone.'

Mercifully, almost a minute after her ordeal had begun, the lorry driver apparently spotted her.

'Suddenly he was all over the road,' she said. 'Finally he managed to manoeuvre us safely on to the hard shoulder.'

After she came to a stop she immediately phoned her husband Rob, 32 – also a vet – to tell him: 'You're not going to believe what's just happened.'

The lorry driver opened her door and asked if she was all right. 'He didn't seem overly concerned,' she said.

'He even asked if I thought he needed to hang around!' Mrs Williams said she politely suggested he did, and within minutes police had arrived and they swapped insurance details.

'He even asked if I thought he needed to hang around!' Mrs Williams said she politely suggested he did, and within minutes police had arrived and they swapped insurance details.

The YouTube clip has prompted police to reopen an investigation into the accident and the driver, from Cheshire-based Arclid Transport, has been suspended.

Mrs Williams says she is now nervous about taking the motorway but is impressed that her Clio survived with only a dented side and damaged tyres. 'It must be a tough little car.'