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STAFF at a drapers in Chippenham were shocked to arrive for work to find the store's display window shattered.

Employees at Rosebys, in the High Street, discovered the smashed window was the result of a car accident the night before.

Manager Mary Handrick said that police told her a collision had happened about midnight.

She said: "I am not 100 per cent sure but I think there was an old lady driving a car and she had been over the line of the road.

"I think there was a young man driving the other way and he had swerved to avoid her and gone into our window and some of the wood on the outside of the British Heart Foundation shop next door.

"I am not sure how much it is going to cost to replace but we are having a structural engineer in to assess what the damage is and then replace it.

"It's not just glass that needs to be replaced but also the metal frame which was twisted."

The manager, who has worked at the store for two years, said a bed which had been in the window at the time had been destroyed by broken glass.

"The duvet was split by the smashed glass so that's got to be a write-off and some of the other duvets were covered in smashed glass," she said.

"I think it is just very lucky that no-one was walking past at the time, especially as it happened around pub closing time.

"I think the young man's car was a write-off from what I have heard.

"We have had broken windows in the past, thanks to people's boots - but we have never had a car drive into us like this."

Sergeant Martin Alvis of Chippenham police, said the accident happened at about midnight on Thursday.

Sgt Alvis said that two years ago a man had suffered serious head injuries after a vehicle squashed him against railings in the High Street.

"Luckily this is a very rare occurrence in Chippenham," he added.

"It is also very lucky that no-one was seriously hurt as a result of this crash."

No-one has been arrested following the accident.

6:30pm Friday 9th May 2008

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