A PORTLAND woman told of her miracle escape after her car flipped over on the Weymouth to Bridport coast road.

Lynda Thomas, 64, had been driving home from work in Bridport when the accident happened.

She has joined a local pressure group which is calling for white lines and cats eyes to be restored to the B3157.

Mrs Thomas, of Courtlands Road, on Portland, said: “I’m so lucky to be alive.

“It is a very dangerous road.”

The lucky grandmother was pulled free from her overturned car by a passing van driver.

She added: “I was driving carefully because it was foggy and it was winter.

“I must have hit some ice at the bottom of Abbotsbury hill and the car went over, it was so frightening, I thought I was going to die.

“I just can’t believe that the road was not gritted.

“A kind van driver stopped and he helped me out and turned the engine off.

“He said he thought I was dead and no one could believe I escaped without injury.”

She added: “It was very embarrassing because the traffic was building and everyone was stopping to take photos of the accident.”

Dorset Police attended the scene along with paramedics.

Mrs Thomas, who works as a carer for a nursing agency, said she has travelled along the B3157 for more than four years.

“It is the quickest route for me to get to and from work, but now I’m so scared of driving along there I use the A35 which adds miles onto my journey.

“There are no white lines along the route and the cats eyes need to be put back.”

Businesses, residents and councillors united at a local pressure group meeting on Tuesday in Swyre to discuss their issues with the route.

Chairman of the meeting Eonne Sinclair (COR), a local businessman and parish councillor for Puncknowle, Swyre and West Bexington, said the group had two main aims.

“We want the cats eyes and white lines re-instated along the road and clearer signage so tourists know that they can travel along such a beautiful route in Dorset.

“The businesses along the route are losing trade because people aren’t travelling along the coast road after the signs were taken down some time ago.

“At the moment people are being directed along the A35.”

County councillor Ronald Coatsworth claimed at the meeting that crashes on the B3157 have risen in the last five years – in contrast to reduced figures for Dorset as a whole.

He warned that the figures were disastrous and proof that white lines and cats eyes need to be re-instated along the whole length of the road.

The group unveiled the first of two films at the meeting which they hope will promote their cause, the film Dorset’s Coast Road, created by Lester Cowling, can be viewed below.

A spokesman for Dorset County Council said: “The work we have done to remove road markings is in keeping with Dorset Road Safe Partnership’s aims to improve safety using methods sympathetic with the rural setting.

"Current records show that 47 injuries occurred in the four years before the start of the project, in December 2008, and 63 in the four years since.

“However, of the collisions that took place after the scheme, 75 per cent of them have been in areas where the road markings have remained in place.

“Of the remaining 25 per cent, the circumstances included a number of factors, none of which have been put down to the removal of white lines. "Fog has only been a factor in three collisions: two before the project and one since. All of these took place where lines are still in place.

“We will continue to monitor the scheme and make improvements as necessary.”

emma.walker@dorsetecho.co.uk