Couple's M42 horror as metal missile shatters windscreen and breaks driver's arm

A terrifying incident on the M42 left a campervan driver screaming in pain after a large piece of metal crashed through his windscreen and impaled him. The object, believed to be a kingpin lock from a lorry, narrowly missed Chris Benn's face as he instinctively moved, but it shattered his arm in six places.

His wife Rachel recounted that they were returning home and driving through Warwickshire when the metal rod speared into their van.

Chris, 54, is now facing a long recovery, with the possibility of never regaining full use of his arm and being unable to work for up to a year. He underwent surgery at Queen Elizabeth Hospital due to internal bleeding and required blood transfusions.

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More than a week after the accident, which occurred between junctions nine and ten on the northbound side around 2:30 pm on Friday, June 21, Chris was still hospitalised.

Rachel described the moment of impact near Water Orton, saying she heard an "almighty bang" and then saw her husband's arm "dangling". She explained how a last-second reaction saved his life: "He saw it at the very last minute, and moved towards me to his left, which then put his shoulder up and it hit that instead of his head. It went through his head rest. If it had hit him in the face, that would have been game over."

Medics have predicted Chris, a fridge and air conditioning engineer, will be off work for as long as a year due to the severity of his injuries. Their campervan has been left utterly wrecked, reports Birmingham Live.

Warwickshire Police are calling for any witnesses or individuals with relevant details to come forward, as the pair seek dashcam recordings from other motorists present at the scene.

Rachel, aged 46, recounted the dreadful incident to BirminghamLive: "It was horrific. We'd just got on the M42, we'd only been on there for a matter of minutes. Our campervan was higher up, if it'd been a car it would have probably gone over the top."

"I was reading a Kindle so I didn't see what happened, I heard an almighty bang and when I turned around there was a hole in the windscreen and Chris said: 'My arm's gone'."

"I leant forward to make sure he still had an arm, and it was dangling. He pulled the wheel and got us on the hard shoulder. Suddenly when the adrenaline wore off, he was screaming in agony."

"Possibly if it had hit him full force in the arm it would have ripped his arm off. We have been super-fortunate, it could have been so much worse but equally it shouldn't have happened."

At the accident scene, emergency responders including highway officers and paramedics arrived. While waiting for an ambulance, Rachel attempted to fetch painkillers from the back of the van and that's when she noticed the Kingpin lock behind their vehicle.

"It was heavy, I had to use two hands to pick it up. It was covered in oil. It must have been coming towards us as it carried on coming through the back. When the traffic police arrived he said it was a kingpin."

"When you take it off [the lorry] apparently it's one of the very basic rules; you never travel with it externally, it has to travel in the cabin."

Chris was rushed to Heartlands Hospital in "so much pain" and later transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he was still being treated on Monday, July 1. He had to receive blood transfusions for internal bleeding and underwent surgery, Rachel explained.

"Chris had his operation yesterday, it all went as OK as it could do. There's just a bit of muscle the surgeon can't repair because there's a main artery underneath it. He might not ever get his arm back to go over his head, and his job involves that so it's horrendous. They said nine to 12 months he'll be out of work."

Rachel continued: "If this guy [lorry driver] has reached his destination, he might be sat at home driving himself insane thinking he's killed someone. It was awful, but it could have been worse. It's going to affect our lives for a long, long time but I don't want someone else's life affected as well; worrying himself to death thinking he's killed someone."

"I'm appealing for anyone who was on that stretch of road at that time and with dashcam footage to come forward, then we've got somewhere to start. We just want to understand what's gone wrong."

Warwickshire Police are probing an incident where a projectile shattered a campervan window, seriously injuring the driver. They stated: "We're investigating an incident where an object went through a campervan window causing serious injury to the shoulder of the driver. The driver a man in his 50s went to hospital with his injuries. The incident was reported to police at 2.50pm on June 21."

"Any witnesses or anyone with information can go to Tell us something you've seen or heard | Warwickshire Police or call 101 quoting incident 206 of 21 June 2024."

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