LANDSCAPE gardener Gareth Lewis escaped death by inches after a metal pole skewered his van as he was driving through Malmesbury.

The pole smashed through the side frame of the windscreen of his Transit van and stopped a few inches from his chest.

He says that if anyone had been sitting in the passenger seat, they could have been killed.

The accident happened as Mr Lewis, 52, was driving up the hill in Gastons Road, past Malmesbury Art School, at noon on Friday on the way to a business appointment in Warwickshire.

He said: "It all happened in a split second. I was driving along and suddenly there was an almighty bang. The next thing a battered old metal pole came crashing through the cab, and stopped a few inches from my chest, in front of the steering wheel."

The pole caused £1,000 damage to the van, cracking the windscreen and punching a hole in it.

Mr Lewis said: "It was frightening. One minute I was driving along and the next moment something horrible had invaded my car. Survival instinct took over.

"I slammed the car into reverse. The pole slithered back the way it had come and fell into the road."

Malmesbury Art School forms part of the town's secondary school at Corn Gastons. The pole, which was normally held in place by wooden supports, was used to prevent casual parking outside the art building.

Mr Lewis said he did not know why the pole was sticking out across the narrow Gastons Road. He said: "I don't know if it suddenly swung out into the road as I was driving past, or if it was already out in the road."

He said it had taken him several hours to recover from the shock. "I was shaken up for the rest of the day, but thankful that I was okay," he said.

Mr Lewis said once the shock wore off he became angry about the accident. "It shouldn't have been allowed to happen. I could have been killed."

"If I had been driving an ordinary car, it could have been fatal because the pole would have come through the vehicle at head height."

He also said his 21-year-old son, Owen, had decided at the last minute not to travel with him to Warwickshire on Friday.

"If Owen had been sitting in the passenger seat, it could have been fatal," said Mr Lewis.

He said Malmesbury Secondary School had admitted responsibility for the accident.

Malmesbury headteacher Malcolm Trobe said the school did not know how the pole came to be across the road. "It is a mystery to us," he said.

"The only way it could have careered out into the road is if it was damaged or bent.

"We think somebody must have hit it and not reported it to us, which is very sad."

He said the school had made a health and safety report to Wiltshire County Council and the police.