Hold Your horses

Now she is calling on people to take more care over horses kept in fields near busy roads, following her own traumatic experience on the A259 at Angmering and a similar crash on the same road a mile away at Rustington.

And police have augmented her views with their own plea to owners to be more vigilant.

Michelle, 23, suffered cuts to her hands and swelling round an eye in last week's crash, but was more concerned about the harm done to her baby, due to be born in the middle of next month.

"All I was worried about was the baby. I didn't mind what had happened to me.

"I was very shaky and they took me into Worthing Hospital. At first the baby was not moving and it was very scary.

"They kept me in overnight and for the next morning to check everything was all right, and by then the baby was moving again and is fine.

"When I saw the car afterwards, I realised it could have been so much worse. The bonnet is all dented and the roof caved in.

"Apparently there were eight of these horses straying in the road and it's lucky the crash involved only one of them.

"People do need to take care about closing gates and making sure horses are shut in properly, so they cannot stray onto the road."

Michelle is about to move from Wordsworth Road, Worthing, to Biscay Close, LIttlehampton, the home of her father, Rick Barton, and stepmother, Ann.

The accident happened at about 1.30am last Sunday, as Michelle was driving back from Ferring, where she had been babysitting, to Biscay Close.

As the Gazette reported last week, the horses were running loose along the A259 after escaping from a field between the Roundstone Lane and Station Road roundabouts.

They were rounded up by firefighters and placed in a temporary corral beside the road.

Two months ago four stray horses caused a serious accident about a mile further west, at Rustington.

A car swerved across the central reservation of the dual carriageway and collided head-on with a van travelling eastwards.

Both drivers were injured, one of them seriously.

Police spokesman PC Mark White told the Gazette: "This is the second accident involving stray horses in a matter of weeks on this stretch of road.

"Police are asking owners of all horses to make sure their paddocks are secure, especially bearing in mind the recent stormy weather."