A MAN whose car window was smashed when vandals hurled light bulbs at it as he drove home at night feared he "could have been killed" if they had used a bigger object.

Douglas Godwin, of Whittall Drive East, Kidderminster, was travelling along the A456 on the Bewdley bypass, when a light fitting and bulbs were thrown from the Severn Valley Railway bridge, smashing the front windscreen of his Jaguar.

The 46-year-old chairman of Rock Parish Council was alone in the car during the "horrifying" incident.

He said: "When the window was hit I pulled up immediately, as I did not know what had been thrown. I got out of the car and found glass on the bonnet and noticed the fitting for a coloured light bulb, which looked like a Christmas fairy light.

"It looked to me as though it had been going on for some time because the road was littered with light bulbs. I think someone had been vandalising Christmas lights and throwing them off the bridge at cars. If the vandals had thrown an iron bar, or some other missile, then I could have been injured or killed.

"What happened was horrifying and it really shook my wife, Susan. She was distressed by it. If it had happened earlier in the evening, my daughter would have been in the car."

The damage to the windscreen has been repaired and Mr Godwin feels night-time security guards at the railway station during the school holidays would stop such incidents happening again.

He added: "It is disappointing that people find throwing things off the railway bridge entertaining when it's dangerous. What this incident could have turned into does not bear thinking about."

Witnesses or anyone with information can contact Kidderminster Police on 08457 444888 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.