A van driver has been left with serious head injuries after a large rock was dropped on his vehicle from a bridge. Nottinghamshire Police confirmed the incident occurred just before 22:00 GMT on 28 January, on the A617 near Hemsley Road, Rainworth. The man, aged 26, was travelling in a silver Transit van when the boulder crashed through his windscreen. The force of the impact caused the rock to hit him in the head.
Supt Heather Maelor from Nottinghamshire Police described the crime as “mindless and abhorrent” and called for witnesses and drivers with dashcam footage to come forward. The road was closed through Saturday morning in order to investigate the incident, but reopened at approximately 13:30 GMT. Police are appealing for anyone with information to contact them.
The A617 closure occurred between the roundabout at Kirklington Road and the junction with the A6191. The incident follows a similar rock-throwing attack last August, where Zoltan Szabo died after a brick was thrown through the windscreen of his delivery van on the M3 in Hampshire. In 2018, the Police Federation warned that the public is not taking the danger of throwing objects from motorway bridges seriously enough.
Official figures show that there were at least 1,248 rock-throwing incidents between 2018 and 2020, although the true number of cases may be higher. Such incidents are classed as reckless endangerment, which can lead to a sentence of up to six months in prison. There have also been calls for toughened sentences, following a spate of rock-throwing attacks in 2017 and 2018
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