A couple have told of their shock after thugs hurled a large heavy object at their car which shattered the windscreen covering them in glass.
The incident in Etwall is one of 16 cases of large objects being thrown at cars, police have said. In one case a driver was left with glass in his mouth after an object was hurled at his car as he drove through Hilton. In this case and one previous a white van passed the car as the object hit.
Sales worker Will Andrews was in the car with his partner Meg Shardlow when the large object, thought to have been a brick, was thrown at the windscreen as they were driving along the A516 near Etwall. The bang it made was so loud the couple initially thought someone had fired a shot at their car.
Partner Meg, 23, was driving when something smashed into the windscreen of her BMW with such force it forced her to pull into a lay-by - and the couple were left in shock.
Will, 26, who was a passenger in the car, said they were both covered in glass as a result.
He said: "It happened around 8pm as we were driving along and we heard this huge bang. My girlfriend was driving and she managed to pull in to the lay-by without swerving in the road.
"It was so loud that it sounded like someone had been shot. The whole of the driver's side windscreen had been smashed.
"I do remember seeing a white flash from another vehicle going the other way and it could have been a white van. It could have been a stone that hit us as it was quite large.
"Meg rang BMW and they sent out a recovery vehicle and took it to Derby. However, we had it fixed at a garage in Burton as it was a lot cheaper. I was surprised she kept so calm as she could have swerved into something as we did not know what was going on. It was a bit shocking and we were stuck there for about two hours. It was scary."
The incident on January 25 is one of 16 which have now been reported to police where objects have been thrown at passing car windscreens. The Hilton case when the driver was left with glass in his mouth happened last week. Since this story appeared on the Burton Mail website, police have said that 11 other drivers had come forward to report being the victims of similar attacks.
At first the couple did not report the incident to the police as they thought it may be been something flicking up off the road but when they read an article in the Burton Mail about they knew the same thing had happened to them.
Will, who works in pharmaceutical sales and lives in Ashbourne, said: "It was really scary but we just left it until we saw the article. It was the glass used on the car, which is layered with gel, which saved her life as it shattered but did not come through.
"The sound was huge and the hole created was large enough for us to think somebody had thrown a brick at us from a car coming the other way, leaving us with a £270 bill."
The Burton Mail has previously reported how Kirsty Holmes and her boyfriend, were driving in Derby Road, heading towards Hilton, when their windscreen was struck by an object.
The pair believe it had been thrown at their BMW by some one in a passing white van, which was heading towards Hatton on the opposite side of the road.
Derbyshire Constabulary is now investigating the 16 reported incidents.
Sergeant Graham Summers has previously referred to these attacks as "motiveless acts of damage" that "are completely reckless".
He said that all of the victims had been driving their vehicles when it happened, meaning danger had been caused to them and other drivers on the road.
Victims have described the objects being thrown from a white transit type van and on one of the occasions there was said to be three people wearing high-visibility jackets in the front of the van.
Anyone who sees anything suspicious is asked to call Derbyshire police on 101.
