A WOMAN who lives near Verwood had a narrow escape when her car bonnet flew open and broke her windscreen as she drove along a motorway.

Alison Masters, 21, a Cardiff University graduate from Woodlands, was driving her Renault Clio at 70mph in the outside lane of the M27 near Romsey when the bonnet "suddenly flew up".

She said: "I could not see anything so I had to negotiate my way on to the central reservation. I was covered in shards of glass from the broken windscreen."

She was told the car was a write-off and although she is insured she said the damage would cost her an excess fee of £450 and is likely to cause her insurance payments to escalate.

She said the fault lies with Renault and bonnet clips on Clio IIs have been publicised on consumer programmes including Watchdog.

In a statement, Renault said the safety of its customers was of "paramount importance" and that they had found no construction or design defects with bonnet clips of the Clio II.

Renault said they would write to all 470,000 Clio II owners and invite them to their nearest dealership so the bonnet mechanisms could be checked.