Lucky escape as ice crashes out of sky

A clump of ice plummeted from the sky and smashed into a moving car, sparking mayhem in a quiet Black Country street.

See also: Ice crashes out of sky on to moving car

Residents living in Seymour Road, Stourbridge believe the icy boulder fell from an aircraft overhead before smashing into a car containing a mother and daughter.

Geoff Williams, who was sitting at home when the drama unfolded, kept a fragment of the ice in his freezer which officials at Birmingham Airport said would now be sent for tests as part of an investigation into the freak accident.

"It was unbelievable," he said."I was just sitting in the back when I heard an almighty crash.

"I thought the shelves in the garage had fallen down but when I went outside I saw what looked like lumps of foam everywhere.

"All the neighbours were out on the street.

"About 15 yards down the road I could see a car that had stopped with serious damage to its bonnet and its wing mirror all bent out of shape. The people in the car were very lucky because if it had been three feet further back they would both be dead. They were both shaking like leaves.

"The damage it did to the car was astounding - if you'd hit it three times with a sledgehammer it wouldn't have done as much damage."

He said the chunk of ice, which he believes weighed around one-and-a-half stone, came plummeting down from the sky at around 150mph at 6pm on Thursday.

It is believed it caused around £300 worth of damage to the silver Rover it hit.

"Planes fly over here every five minutes and I'm certain that's where the ice came from," said Mr Williams.

"It was all over the street and I managed to save a chunk of it and put in the freezer, although that was only about a tenth of the clump's actual size."

Birmingham Airport spokeswoman Francesca Baller said the remainder of the block of ice would be sent for tests by experts, while flight plans are being checked with National Air Traffic Services.

"The mother and daughter in the car didn't know what had happened, because I suppose it wasn't like a normal accident that you can see coming. I think the paper boy heard the whistle as it came falling through the sky and he scarpered home."