A VET from York has told how she thought she was going to die as a tanker truck shunted her car sideways along a motorway at 60mph.

Rona Williams, 31, said her daily commute to a surgery in Garforth, Leeds, turned into a nightmare when her Renault Clio became trapped under the front bumper of an 18-wheel lorry on the A1(M) near Wetherby.

The driver of the tanker did not realise what was happening, and pushed Mrs Williams’ car for up to a minute, before manoeuvring both vehicles on to the hard shoulder.

“I was aware of the tanker. We had been on the road together for a while and he was in the middle lane,” said Mrs Williams.

“The next thing I know I’m stuck to the front of his lorry. I’ve no idea how but I didn’t deviate from my path.”

The incident which took place on January 13 was captured on a mobile phone by passing motorists, and has been viewed on YouTube more than 140,000 times since it was posted last week.

“I just felt a knock and then I was travelling sideways. I don’t know how long for, but it felt like forever,” said Mrs Williams.

“I’ve seen the footage and the trucker seems to be going along like nothing has happened, and that’s exactly what it felt like.”

To try to alert the driver, Mrs Williams pulled on her handbrake, and switched on her hazard lights. When this didn’t work, she grabbed her mobile phone from her handbag and dialled 999. “I just screamed to the operator, ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die! Can you do something?’” she said. “She tried to calm me down, but there wasn’t really anything she could do at the end of the phone.”

Despite other motorists attempting to alert the lorry driver, it took him nearly a minute to notice her.

When the trucker did realise, he moved the truck “all over the place”, Mrs Williams said, finally managing to bring both vehicles to a stop on the hard shoulder.

Shaken, but uninjured after the incident, she then rang her 32-year-old husband, Rob, also a vet, in York, vet to tell him about the ordeal.

West Yorkshire Police are reinvestigating the incident.

The driver of the tanker, from Cheshire-based Arclid Transport, has been suspended from duty pending further inquiries.