A Fairlie businesswoman was given a big shock when her front window was smashed early in the morning after a stone chip came flying off the road.

Anna Conway said her daughter Faye, 10, started screaming when the loud crashing noise occurred from the window facing Fairlie’s Main Road last Wednesday.

The incident happened at 6.50am, when Anna was in bed with her daughter who jumped up because of the upset.

Photographer Ms Conway stated: “The stone bounced off the truck, hit off the window and smashed it. I was just about to get up to start in the workshop, and suddenly my youngest woke up screaming because of the fright of it.” A coal lorry She said that she believed she heard a coal lorry passing the scene when the drama occurred.

“It sounded like one of the empty lorries that have been coming through the village so often of late” she said. “The stone which was lying in the living room came flying up off the road - it was around two inches in diameter.

“You certainly do feel intimidated - my house is so close to the main road, and when you think about the woman who got killed by one of the trucks - Catherine Bonner - it does make you wonder. Faye was with me - and she had an awful start.” It was a ground floor window - 4 foot x 3 - that was smashed by the flying stone chip. Ms Conway, who runs a photo and framing studio in the village, said that she is going to contact both Clydeport, and Fairlie Community Council, in relation to what happened.

Fairlie campaigner David Telford, who is calling for a Fatal Accident Inquiry into last year’s lorry crash at Curneil Villas on February 14 2013, said: “It is terrible - I suppose the difficulty is in what evidence she has that it was actually the lorry, but I guess at that time of the morning, it is hard to think that it would be anyone else. It is a terrible thing to happen, particularly at that time of the morning. The empty lorries in the morning make a bigger racket than the full ones. You can hear them half a mile away once it goes through.

“It could have been someone just walking past - if the stone chip was travelling with enough force to cause that damage, it could have blinded someone, or goodness knows what. Maybe it was a lump of coal rattling around the back of a lorry - it could have been another serious accident to a human being. This is why something needs to be done about it - is anyone holding our breath for North Ayrshire Council to do anything about it?

“Mrs Conway said to me she was glad it was only a stone and not a lorry as had happened before. It is another example of how we have to do something about it, and there is nobody controlling what is happening down there at Clydeport.” Community Councillor Telford added: “When the port was first built, the sensible proposal was that all bulk material come in by ship and rail, and now it just seems to be thrown out - it is dreadful.” As we went to press, another Fairlie action group meeting was taking place in the village hall. Local chef Iain Maclean, who lives on the Main Road, has also suffered from road chips hitting his property, he has told the