A CAR repair firm has put a Swindon family back on the road after their car was damaged by thugs.

Mum-of-four Leigh Sadler was left shaken when young vandals lobbed stones from a footbridge on to the windscreen of her Volkswagen Sharan people carrier as she was driving along Dorcan Way last week.

Now she says, her faith in human nature has been restored after technicians at repair firm Motofix mended her car for free.

Leigh, 29, from Eldene, who works as a sales assistant, is delighted to be back on the road.

"After what happened I think my faith in people wavered somewhat, but what the guys at Motofix did has completely restored that," she said.

"The engineers did a fantastic job and it is wonderful to be back on the road again.

"Being without a car had a big effect on the whole family. You don't realise just how much you use one, until you don't have it."

Leigh admits the incident has slightly put her off driving and at times she does try to avoid the bridge where the rocks were dropped.

She said: "I know the chances of it happening again are tiny, but sometimes you just get that feeling, so I sometimes take a detour to avoid it, other times I don't even think about it.

"Whenever I drive under a bridge though I always look to see if there is anyone on it now.

"I just hope that the youngsters who did this realised the problems and heartache it caused us, and that parents who might have read the piece in the paper might have given their kids a stern warning."

Martin Bailey, the general manager at Motofix said: "We were delighted to help Leigh after what happened.

"This sort of vandalism is so frustrating and petty and this could not have happened at a worse time of year leaving her and her family without any transport, so we thought we would lend a hand.

"Fortunately the damage was not too bad, just a shattered windscreen, so it simply a case of replacing that, but it could have been so much worse - the rock could have come right through."

When the stone was dropped it hit the windscreen on the passenger side of the car, making a loud cracking noise.

Previously there have been problems with youths dropping stones off the bridges in Thamesdown Drive in North Swindon on to passing cars.