A WOMAN whose vehicle was hit by a stray horse at 70mph on the A64 near York has spoken of her shock that the problem has still not been tackled.

Sharon Tyers’ wrist was fractured by one of the animal’s hooves when it came through her windscreen, and the horse suffered fatal injuries.

“Had my partner, Carl Abbey, and I not been in a 4x4 hire car, we would have died instantly,” said Sharon, 46, of Haxby.

“I was off work for nine weeks but the psychological effects lasted much longer and also, what pain must that horse have been in?”

Sharon said the accident happened in February 2009, but she was speaking out now to support calls for the authorities to stop horses being tethered illegally on roadside verges in the York area.

Sharon said she could not believe that three years after her accident, the problem was still not being tackled, and she backed calls by York Outer MP Julian Sturdy for City of York Council to use its powers to confiscate such horses. “They should be removed,” she said.

She said the accident happened at 11pm one evening as Carl was driving the Freelander vehicle along the dual carriageway between Grimston Bar and the Hopgrove roundabout.

“I remember seeing the car in front swerving and then there was a really loud bang and I must have blacked out,” she said. Their vehicle, which was also subsequently struck from behind by a motor caravan, was written off.

The Press has reported in recent weeks how a number of stray horses have broken free of their roadside tetherings on the eastern side of York and wandered into the road. Two animals have been killed after being struck by vehicles, and the driver of a Ford Transit van which struck a horse was told by police he would probably have been killed had he been driving an ordinary car.

City of York Council has said it is looking into what appropriate course of action it can take, both in the short and long term, to develop a solution to the problem of tethered horses.