NORWAY— A pregnant woman was sent to Stephens Memorial Hospital as a precaution after her husband accidentally rear-ended her car off the road.

According to police, Norway resident Jenifer Shepard was driving northbound on Route 117 around 11:55 a.m. last Saturday when she noticed in her mirror that the bindings lashing a mattress to the roof of a vehicle driven by her husband were coming loose.

According to Norway Police Chief Robert Federico, Stephen Shepard was following behind his wife when he glanced away from the road as she simultaneously decelerated, coming to a halt in the lane.

Unable to stop a 2002 Mercury Mountaineer he was driving, Stephen, 28, struck the car’s left rear bumper. The impact forced his wife’s silver 2006 Toyota utility vehicle to spin off the road, where it came to a rest on its side in a ditch. Nine-year old Ashland Jones was in the front passenger’s seat of the Toyota at the time. No injuries were reported.

Six months pregnant, Jenifer, 31, was transported to the hospital for evaluation and later released.

Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene.

The couple, originally from Wisconsin, had recently moved to Thomas HIll Road in Norway, Federico said.