A woman has appealed for people to make sure any objects tied to the roof of their vehicles are secured properly, after she was involved in a crash caused by a ladder falling on to the road on the Norwich bypass.

Michelle Bobby and her partner Daniel Mileham were driving between the junctions for the A140 and A146 shortly before 10am on Friday.

Their Vauxhall Corsa crashed into a metal ladder, which had fallen off another vehicle and was lying in the outside lane of the eastbound carriageway.

Ms Bobby said the undercarriage of her car was badly damaged and she lost control of the steering initially, but managed to continue for another mile until she could pull over on the hard shoulder.

She added: 'It has really frightened me. The car drifted across the A47 at first but we managed to stop on the hard shoulder.

'The police then wanted me to follow them but I couldn't drive and my partner had to drive for me.

'The first thing I thought about was the kids and how lucky we were.'

The incident has left mother-of-two Ms Bobby, of Dereham, shaken as she and her 33-year-old partner were travelling at over 50mph when they hit the ladder.

Police were called to the A47 after two cars – Ms Bobby's Vauxhall and a green Rover – had crashed with the ladder. People in both the vehicles had lucky escapes as no one was injured in either crash and both cars and the ladder were recovered by 11.10am.

The couple are now waiting for insurers to assess the damage.