Marine's miracle escape as rock thrown at car from bridge (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Marine's miracle escape as rock thrown at car from bridge
6:30am Thursday 10th January 2013 in News
Marine's miracle escape as rock thrown at car from bridge
A ROYAL Marine had a miracle escape after a rock was dropped from a bridge on to his car on a busy motorway.
Corporal AJ Orchard from Bournemouth was driving at night along the M3 under the A27 bridge at Chilworth when suddenly a three-inch by four-inch rock smashed through the sunroof of his car.
Amazingly AJ, 27, from Charminster, managed to escape unscathed from his ordeal.
AJ said: “It could have easily killed us.
“I was overtaking a lorry and it came out of nowhere and the roof literally shattered and glass was everywhere inside.”
Fortunately AJ kept his cool and managed to avoid swerving his Renault Megane, which he puts down to serving in the Afghanistan war.
He said: “We pulled over and my missus found the stone in the back.
“It was the size of two fists and too big to have been a chip off the road. I realised it must have been thrown.
“Luckily we had the sunroof curtain over and it caught most of the glass.
“Imagine if it had come through the windscreen at 70mph, or if it had come through the sunroof and knocked me out and I had gone out of control and crashed – it could have caused a pile-up.
“I don’t know what was going through the head of whoever did this.
“If you are going to throw a rock like that off a bridge you must know it could do damage.”
A police investigation is now underway to hunt down the person responsible.
A police spokesman said: “It is highly dangerous and it could cause a serious accident. Anyone who does it will also find themselves having to face the consequences of their actions.”
Comments(15)
l'anglais
says...
3:01pm Wed 9 Jan 13
suzigirl wrote:Ah, you'd be jumping to conclusions.
More than likely some little chavs!
Could be a few Oxbridge grads on a jolly
paul.p
says...
4:10pm Wed 9 Jan 13
Yeah, probably a course on how to throw stones properly.
Personally, if and when the perps are found I'd hang them over the parapet by their feet and wait for a high sided vehicle to come along and hopefully it'll take their bloody head off!!!
GAHmusic
says...
5:44pm Wed 9 Jan 13
GAHmusic
says...
5:44pm Wed 9 Jan 13
paul.p
says...
12:31am Thu 10 Jan 13
GAHmusic wrote:I know what you mean, driving in the pouring rain around 6:30 is a real eye opener.
The M3, in my opinion is becoming the road to hell. Is there any other motorway with such a high rate of incidents and accidents I wonder.
hamworthygirl
says...
8:46am Thu 10 Jan 13
TD61
says...
9:20am Thu 10 Jan 13
hamworthygirl wrote:If you thought all bridges have nets, you clearly never use the motorways very much - nor any other road with a bridge over such as the Dorset Way going past Oakdale.
I thought all bridges had nets to be honest to stop this. I hate the M3 as well I think its one of the worst motor ways there is. Glad the guy, I hope the culprits are caught and duly punished, but I doubt it.
Oakdale bridge has been the scene of many similar incidents over the years and almost no one gets caught for doing it - hence the probably reason why so many little idiots feel they can do it "for a laugh" and get away with it.
scrumpyjack
says...
9:41am Thu 10 Jan 13
l'anglais wrote:Really?
suzigirl wrote:Ah, you'd be jumping to conclusions.
More than likely some little chavs!
Could be a few Oxbridge grads on a jolly
beachcomber1
says...
9:56am Thu 10 Jan 13
l'anglais wrote:the two extremes of the remnants of English class snobbery neatly encapsulated in two posts lol
suzigirl wrote:Ah, you'd be jumping to conclusions.
More than likely some little chavs!
Could be a few Oxbridge grads on a jolly
rayc
says...
10:20am Thu 10 Jan 13
beachcomber1 wrote:Remnants is the wrong word, English class snobbery is alive an kicking and the recent influx of immigrants have brought their own with them.
l'anglais wrote:the two extremes of the remnants of English class snobbery neatly encapsulated in two posts lol
suzigirl wrote:Ah, you'd be jumping to conclusions.
More than likely some little chavs!
Could be a few Oxbridge grads on a jolly
It is strange that at a time when there are calls for even more automated traffic violation enforcement are being made by those with vested interests that technology is not used to deter and prevent potential fatal casualties due to objects being thrown from motorway bridges. Perhaps that is where the profits from Driver Awareness Courses could be spent.
oversixty
says...
11:08am Thu 10 Jan 13
The cost surely outweighs to risk to life?
uvox44
says...
2:15pm Thu 10 Jan 13
rayc
says...
2:26pm Thu 10 Jan 13
uvox44 wrote:I never mentioned speed cameras, are you sure your not obsessed with them or even what I think? Why does it worry you so much what I think, I have no say in determining the road safety strategy and its implementation within Dorset.
is there no subject under the sun that Rayc can't try to divert onto his obsession with speed cameras ! I think even if the Echo had a story entitled Aliens land in Bournemouth Ray would put something along the lines of "yes but where they fined for speeding just like us poor motorists are,,blah,blah, blah" !
The Education courses operate due to Enforcement so why not spend some of the surplus money from running the courses on Engineering? That is the 3E's of Dorset roadsafe neatly joined up.
anigel
says...
7:30pm Thu 10 Jan 13
oversixty wrote:That would be useful though and wont be a cash cow just used to generate revenue off the British Motorist
Surely time for CCTV to be fitted on a lot of these bridges?
The cost surely outweighs to risk to life?
suzigirl says...
2:35pm Wed 9 Jan 13