Horse killed after plunging through car windscreen
A horse has been killed after plunging through the windscreen of a moving car.
Catherine Lawrence, 74, from New Zealand was driving on Wednesday night (26 August) when 4 horses ran in front of her car.
She narrowly avoided hitting 2 of the horses but third was killed in the accident in Nelson on South Island
Ms Lawrence suffered bruises to her face and an eye injury.
The horse landed with its head on the back seat and its body in the front passenger seat. It was killed instantly.
“I thought the body was the airbag that had gone off,” Ms Lawrence told the New Zealand Herald.
“If anyone else had been in the car, they wouldn’t have had a hope. All the doctors at the hospital said go home and buy a Lotto ticket.”
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The horse was one of 4 that had broken through an electric fence onto the road. The other 3 were safely rounded up and returned to the owner.
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.