It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet
By East Leeds Magazine Editorial Staff, July 2010
There's probably not a person on the planet that's not seen footage of the Rona Williams' Renault Clio being pushed down the A1 by a truck. How Rona got out alive is a miracle. It's propelled her, somewhat reluctantly, into the spotlight of not only the national but the worldwide media. Rona works at Beechwood Vets, splitting her time between the two practices in Crossgates and Garforth. She kindly took time out to tell us about the incident and the aftermath.
"I was on my way to work at about 8.30 in the morning on January 13th this year. I travel the same route virtually every day. At the A1-M1 link around Garforth, in my opinion, I was more or less side by side with a tanker, who then changed lanes, clipping my car and spinning me round, which is where I became attached to his front end. And then that was it, I was on some terror ride over which I had no control and most likely was unlikely to survive. My immediate thought was to put the hand brake on, I don't know why, I just felt I had to do something. I made a 999 call and tried to explain as calmly as I could what was happening. Lot's of things raced through my mind, firstly the realisation he didn't know I was there, secondly was he asleep or something."
"I found out afterwards other motorists were trying to attract his attention, somebody must have because he eventually pulled over and reversed the truck away from me. He didn't seem too concerned, he actually asked me if he needed to stick around! The police came and didn't really ask too many questions, checked all our paper work and dumped me off at Mc.Donalds in Colton. They also told me it was my responsibility to get the car off the motorway. I was too much in a state of shock to ask why they hadn't breathalised us or checked his tacograph. In hindsight I should have made more of it, I should have said I was injured because nobody seemed to realise the magnitude of what had happened."
"I'd put it to bed in my own mind, then in March it reared it's head again on You Tube. Then it just escalated, I couldn't log into my emails without seeing a picture of it. The Daily Mail and the Mirror got in contact, Calendar and GMTV followed. I was contacted by Fox News in America, a Spanish Radio Station; I had film crews turning up at work. It became a blur one after another."
The publicity worked well for Rona. The police opened an investigation and it might have sped the insurance claim up. But Rona is still aggrieved.
"It's taken so long for anyone to take me seriously, you can't claim for the time trying to get some form of justice and for trying to get an end to it all. I've made a complaint to the very apologetic police, I asked to see the CCTV footage but it's wiped after a week, so we were about five weeks too late. I don't feel safe driving any more, I come a different way to work now, I feel physically sick driving. My only question is why he didn't know I was there, what steps can be taken so it doesn’t happen again?’
Rona carries on helping our animals at Beechwood Vets, safe in the knowledge she has a lifetime ahead of cropping up on Police Camera Action, Road Wars etc. What followed was a bit of a media frenzy.
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