A HORSE rider narrowly escaped death after a driver refused to give way to her and her horse on a busy country road.

Clea Martin from Doncaster Way, Upminster had a lucky escape after the incident in Harwood Hall Lane, Upminster on Monday January 31 at around 6.45am.

Clea, 38,said: “It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had and I have just been getting terrible flashbacks.

“It made me realise how lucky I was to see my family again because I might not have lived to see them again.”

The mother-of-one was walking beside her horse with her three other friends and their horses and got to the middle of the road, when she claims that a car coming from Upminster approached them at a high speed.

Ignoring Clea’s pleas to slow down, the driver swerved past her at just one inch away from hitting her horse.

Shaken by the experience, Clea fell on to the ground where she says that she could smell burned rubber from the tyres.

Clea said: “It was just down to the grace of God that I was not hurt.

“This all happened with high visibility clothes and with all the lights on.”

Clea, claims that in the past she has had water thrown on her as she has riden past on her horse and she has also been sworn at, despite the road having a 30 miles per hour restrictions.

She is now calling for police to step up the speed restrictions in the area and for a inter linking bridge to be installed on the road where drivers are forced to wait for the horses to go by.

Clea said: “People would stop if there was a child riding their bikes but they dont’t care when you are with a horse.”

Two weeks ago a woman was killed and a man injured when a van hit the two horses they were riding on.

Teacher at Havering-atte-Bower Riding School, Sarah Outen claims that drivers do not always know of the risk to horses.

She said: “The woman dying was a real reality check,

“Drivers do not realise that a horse is not like a car and when you are out with a horse there are two brains working and they can just react in a very surprising way.”