Chillington resident and local author Barbara Butcher believes she was nearly killed by a van racing through the village on the main A379.

Barbara is calling for the speed limit to be reduced from 30mph to 20mph and to be clearly signposted.

She said: “I was walking along the road and there’s no pavement on that side so I was going very carefully. A brown van came towards me very quickly and he pushed me against the wall.

“He pushed me so hard that I thought I was going to die. He pushed me harder and harder against the wall. I couldn’t move at all and it was so frighting.

“There were no logos on the vehicle, nothing to show who he was or what he did.

“He didn’t realise that I was there because he was going too fast.

“He drove off and I was very, very shaken so returned home.”

Barbara said her children were very concerned.

She said: “I told my daughter who lives opposite and she said ‘you shouldn’t have walked that way. I never, never use that road’.

“When I spoke to my son who lives in Amsterdam, he said ‘I know where you were walking. You should not have been walking there. Never, never walk there again. Walk through the village instead.’”

She added: “The police have been very helpful and asked if I needed any help. I said no I’m dealing with it but I have been very, very traumatised. I did really appreciate them phoning me.”

John Bickford who lives on the main road said: “Chillington is a long village and at the eastern end there isn’t room for two vehicles to pass so it’s a matter of motorists giving way to each other.”

“People living around here need to drive more carefully and responsibly but that said I wouldn’t agree with making it 20mph.

Devon and Cornwall Police released this short statement: “Devon and Cornwall Police were called by a woman reporting that she had been the victim of an incident of dangerous driving involving a van in Chillington on Monday, February 12.

“It was arranged that she be assisted by victim support.”