Wild Flower Walks of Upper Teesdale - Christopher and Gayle Lowe
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Yobs force driver off road
Jun 30, 2009
YOBS who tied wire across a busy road are putting lives in danger, a motorist says after her car skidded off the road because of the sick prank.
The wire was tied between two posts near Evenwood Primary School when Melanie Gibson’s vehicle collided with it.
She escaped with only a bump to her head, but is worried that a motorcyclist could be flung off a bike if the stunt is repeated.
Mrs Gibson said: “It was maliciously and deliberately done in order to injure – especially in the case of a motorcyclist – damage, or cause disaster.
“Whoever it was who did this should be ashamed of themselves. They could have really hurt somebody.”
Mrs Gibson decided to take a different route back from Bishop Auckland to her home in Mickleton, on June 6, at about 3pm.
The motorist noticed four youths, aged about 12 or 13, staring at her car as she drove past Evenwood Primary School.
The vehicle then hit the wire and skidded off the road.
“Luckily, I was not injured too badly and got away with bumping my head and a few scratches on my car.
“I was more in shock than anything else and do not know how anyone, irrespective of their age, could be so stupid to do such a thing,” Mrs Gibson said.
She described it as plastic coated wire, similar to washing line.
“It was tied so tightly that it only sagged after I hit it at about 40mph.
“It would take off a motorcyclist from a bike and was placed outside the village so people would have built up speed. I will never go that way home again,” she added.
Bournemouth Police last year warned that cyclists or motorbike riders could be decapitated after pranksters tied fishing wire across a road.
That year, 17-year-old Ryan Acaster was killed when he rode his trail bike into a wire strung between trees on a country track in Lancashire.
Durham Police said they wanted to speak to anyone with information about the incident in Evenwood.
A spokesman said: “Youths trying to stop vehicles by doing this are being extremely silly and dangerous.”
The spokesman said the police were treating the incident as anti-social behaviour.
He added that he thought it was unlikely that the prank could cause death.