A COUPLE who were ‘nearly killed’ after a flying car wheel smashed into their windscreen are appealing for witnesses to find those responsible.

Rod and Ann Shaw, both 61, were travelling along the A46 Bath Road towards Tetbury, between The Tipputs Inn and the Calcot crossroads, at about 2.45pm when the freak incident happened.

A large wheel appeared 12ft in the air before it crashed, crushing the frame and roof of the Isuzu Trooper 4x4 before landing approximately 30ft away.

The couple from Slad, near Stroud, were showered with glass, but escaped with only small scratches and cuts. Their car will also be written off.

Rod, who was driving when it happened, said: "The tyre appeared out of nowhere. It came flying at me at about 12ft high. It was bouncing along the road.

“It sliced along the windscreen and roof.

“We're lucky that we were in a large car, anything smaller, or if it had fallen through the windscreen, it would have killed us.”

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

Speaking about what was going through his mind at the time, he said: “Nothing at all. It happened to quickly.

“I just looked up and thought, ‘There’s a flying wheel and it’s going to hit me.’

“Ann was a bit shocked. It was her side of the car, so she was showered with shattered glass.

“My first thought afterwards was that it had just broken the windscreen but when I got out, I realised it was a write-off.”

The tyre was travelling with such height and speed that the couple believe it must have fallen from a truck or vehicle.

He said: “The only thing I can think of is it fell from a lorry or somebody carrying the wheel and it set off a bounce because it came quite high. It suggests that the wheel rolled down a load.”

If anyone remembers seeing a wheel on the road or falling from a vehicle at that time on the A46, call the police on 101 and quote incident 268 of December 4 and officers will look into this further.