It was a New Year to forget for a woman from Ipswich, who has told of her frightening experience behind the wheel of her car when she hit three bicycles in the middle of the road while driving on a dual carriageway.

Ipswich Star: Jodie Smith wants to highlight the importance of securing bikes properly to cars after she had an accident with one that had fallen off on the motorway.Jodie Smith wants to highlight the importance of securing bikes properly to cars after she had an accident with one that had fallen off on the motorway. (Image: Archant)

Jodie Smith, 38, from Belle Vue Road, was travelling on the outside lane of the A14 towards Ipswich at around 6pm on New Year’s Eve when she encountered the bikes lying in the middle of the road in front of her.

Unable to move into a different lane, Ms Smith was forced to drive over the bicycles, travelling at 70mph.

Ms Smith said: “I didn’t know what it was at first, it looked like a motorbike which appeared to be lying in the road. I swerved a bit and moved to the side of the road when I could.

“I thought it was a person driving a bike, so I thought I had run over someone – I nearly had a heart attack!”

It was only after she had stopped at the side of the road that she found out that no one had been run over.However, Ms Smith was not the only driver whose vehicle hit the bikes, with three other cars suffering exterior damage including flat tyres, ripped wheels and bodywork damage.

Ms Smith added: “The A14 came to a standstill. There was damage to other cars behind, but I was the first to hit it.”

The extent of the damage on Ms Smith’s company Audi A3 car is not clear, with possible damage to the floor and underside of the car yet to be determined.

“It was scary because I couldn’t get out of the car when I had pulled it into the inside lane. It was on the inside of the road and put my hazard lights on, but there wasn’t enough of a verge for me to pull off the road completely, and the lorries were still coming past.

“Then all the traffic just ground to a halt. The police arrived and made sure there were no injuries.”

Police cleared the bikes from the road, and moved the damaged cars to a lay-by a little further up the dual carriageway.

Shortly afterwards, a man in a Vauxhall Astra pulled into the lay-by admitting that the bikes had fallen off his car.

“It’s not something you expect, it was surreal how it all happened and we were all in shock,” Ms Smith said.

Ms Smith’s car is now due to be checked over for any damage to the underside.

She added: “It was so dark, and on that stretch of road it was really frightening.

“I couldn’t believe it happened so close to home. I am really lucky – it could have been so different.”