A COUPLE have spoken of how they narrowly escaped serious injury as a tree branch smashed through their vehicle's back window.

Robert and Jo-Anne Dixon, from Bolton Abbey, were driving through Skipton around lunchtime on Sunday when the high winds brought down a tree branch, which went through the back window of their Mitsubishi Outlander.

Jo-Anne Dixon said she was driving up the Bailey, with Robert as a passenger, when there was a loud bang.

"I had just gone over the pelican crossing and initially thought I had hit someone, " said 48-year-old Jo-Anne. "It was such a loud band. There was glass everywhere, in my hair and all over the dashboard."

It was only after they got out the vehicle that they discovered a large branch in the road.

"It had fallen from a great height. If it had gone through the front window, I do not want to think about what could have happened. It just came from nowhere. It was such a shock. I had no idea what had happened and the noise and glass hitting us was so unexpected."