A SHOCKED driver has told how he and his girlfriend narrowly avoided serious injury after a “lump of steel” was hurled at his car’s windscreen while he was driving.

Josh Milwain, 25, of Wix, was driving along the A120 towards the Horsley Cross roundabout when the chunk of metal smashed into the glass, shattering shards over the stricken pair.

The object was launched from a bush on the roadside, at about 12.30pm on Sunday, September 4.

“To have something of that size thrown at you while driving on the road is very, very scary,” said Mr Milwain.

“If we were going even 2mph slower, it could have come in either mine or my girlfriend’s window and smashed us in the head.

“I did not swerve off the road. I managed to put the hazard lights on and pull over in a safe place.

“Luckily the road wasn’t too busy and nobody else was hurt in the incident.

“I had left my house in Wix to take my girlfriend shopping in Colchester. We pulled out of the Wix junction and turned left on to the A120 towards Horsey Cross roundabout.

“My girlfriend Jodie pulled the mirror down and preceded to put make up on.

“500 yards after turning out of the junction a brown lump of steel approximately eight inches long and 5mm thick was launched out of the bushes and smashed my windscreen.

“It was devastating as there was glass shattered all over my girlfriend and my dashboard.

“We looked in the bushes where it had come from and we found the rusty lump of steel on the ground, with glass shards on it and flattened long grass and trample marks where they must have been laying down and hiding in the bushes.”

Mr Milwain posted a message of warning on Facebook.

It was one of a number of reported incidents of metal being thrown at vehicles along that stretch of road.

Another victim from Frinton said he was driving on the same stretch of road at around 6.30pm on Saturday, September 3 when his windscreen was hit by what he suspects was an air gun pellet.

He said police who came to his home to hear his testimony spoke of four similar incidents.