A DRIVING instructor has described the terrifying moment yobs hurled a lump of concrete on to his car on the A127.

Jim Ayres was driving along the Southend-bound carriageway in the early hours of Sunday, after visiting his seriously-ill mum in hospital in Harlow, when concrete was thrown from a bridge near the Halfway House junction.

The fist-sized lump just missed his windscreen and he had no choice but to drive his Ford Focus over the lump of concrete at 65mph – causing £2,000 damage.

He said: “It could have been fatal. I really can’t imagine if it had come through the windscreen or if a car had swerved out of the way. Cars did have to slow down behind me.

“It literally happened within a split second.

“I just saw this object drop in the blink of an eye and then there was the most horrendous noise you can think of.

“If it had been a split second difference, it would have gone through the windscreen.”

Mr Ayres, 55, with his wife Jacqueline in the car, pulled in to the next layby and called the police, who put a rolling road block in place as they searched the area and recovered the block of concrete.

He added: “It is not something you really expect to happen. It is just mindless and senseless. What else can you call it?”

The bridge was checked and police have ruled out a piece of masonry falling off it, and have urged anyone who sees anything being thrown from bridges on to roads to call 999 immediately.

Anyone with information about Saturday’s incident is asked to call 101 and ask for Loughton CID, quoting incident number 83 of October 25.