A1 van driver’s windscreen ‘explodes’ in lucky escape after brick thrown from bridge
A courier has said someone could have been killed after a brick was hurled through his windscreen from a bridge above the A1 in Newcastle.
On Friday July 7, Craig Young had left his home in Burnopfield to transport goods to Scotland in his Nissan NV400. However, his journey was cut short when a brick smashed through his windscreen[1] on the A1 near Kingston Park, Newcastle.
The 41-year-old courier had noticed two articulated lorries stopped on the hard shoulder of the southbound carriageway who had also been hit by objects thrown from above, but he was not aware of that at the time. The next thing he knew, his windscreen had “exploded.”
Craig, who works for JCP Light Haulage, told ChronicleLive: “There were three people on the motorway bridge and as I went underneath I saw the one that was directly above me throw both his hands down. And then my windscreen exploded, literally exploded and I just thought what the f*** was that?”
“I swore quite loudly, hit the brakes, and obviously pulled onto the hard shoulder and immediately rang the police.” The incident meant Craig’s van was off the road for a week as the windscreen and wing mirror were repaired.
The brick hurled through Craig Young’s van windscreen (Image: Craig Young)
For a man who drives 80,000 miles a year, he added that it was the first time he had seen anything like it. Craig said: “I wasn’t scared or anything like that, I just can’t believe somebody’s just done that.
“You get kids chucking snowballs and you think fair enough. But to be hurling half bricks off motorway bridges, it’s just not something you expect.”
Craig was unhurt in the incident, but he feels he had a lucky escape. He said: “What I didn’t realise at the time was he’d thrown one brick through the windscreen and another had hit the wing mirror on the passenger side.
“It hit it with such force that the actual metal bracket that joins it to the door, it pushed a hole in the metal. If there’d been a passenger in that van, it would have killed them.
Craig says that the brick would have killed a passenger if there had been one (Image: Craig Young)
“That’s not an exaggeration. It would have killed them.”
He is now back to work, and ended by saying: “I don’t think they realise just how dangerous what they’re doing is. They are going to kill somebody at some point if they continue doing that.”
Northumbria Police[3] officers are investigating the incident and are calling on anyone who may have information regarding what happened to contact them. Witnesses should use the ‘Tell Us Something’ page of their official website or call 101, quoting NP-20230707-0098.
References
- ^ smashed through his windscreen (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
- ^ Two men arrested and three e-bikes seized along with drugs haul in Sunderland (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)
- ^ Northumbria Police (www.chroniclelive.co.uk)