Fears after car crashes into concrete gargoyle left in middle of busy road

Computer programmer Jon Wilmer was driving on the A272 West Chiltington Lane towards Coolham when the smash happened just before 10pm on Thursday.

“The concrete gargoyle went right under the car,” said Jon, 54, from Shipley. “I lost control and couldn’t steer and couldn’t really brake.

“Fortunately, there was nothing coming in the other direction. If I had been on a motorcycle it would have been lethal.”

He said he feared that someone had deliberately placed the gargoyle in the road. “My concern is that it was some sort of prank that could have gone horribly wrong.”

When he first spotted it in the road “it looked like a plastic bag in the road and then it morphed into something more solid.”

The gargoyle wrecked the front of Jon’s Fiat and he called police for help to get the car, and the gargoyle, off the road to prevent more accidents.

“The police were there promptly,” said Jon, “and they were very helpful and moved the gargoyle to the side of the road, but they said they could not do any more. They said it was not a crime they expected to be able to solve.”

He said he realised all public services were under-funded “but whether the gargoyle was deliberately placed in the road, or it fell off a lorry, it is still a crime.”

He was returning home from a visit to his mother when the smash happened. “It could have been the last time my mum saw me if I had been on my motorbike,” he added. “I’m concerned for the potential of this happening again to someone else.