Sinking her car into two feet of wet concrete on her way home was the pinnacle of frustration for a Sliema resident last Wednesday.

Just as she swerved into Dragut Street in the Qui-Si-Sana area in Sliema on her way home at around 3 p.m., the woman’s red Seat plunged into concrete which had just been laid onto the road to fill a trench.

The woman, who preferred not to be named, had left her home at noon unaware of any roadworks.

She returned three hours later, only to find that there were no workers – and worse, no road signs.

“I was driving slowly around the corner, and all of a sudden the car plunged into a ditch. My body jolted and I strained my neck but I didn’t notice the pain straight away. I was still in shock,” she said.

She suffered whiplash and is on medication: “I’ve had two terrible sleepless nights with a throbbing headache.”

Dazed, the woman got out of the car and was immediately surrounded by people urging her to pull the car out of the concrete.

“It was crazy because I realised the concrete which got into the car was going to harden around the engine,” she said.

It took 10 people and a pickup truck to pull the drenched car out of the concrete 20 minutes later. Attempts to start the engine led to an “awful noise”. Four “helpful” police officers from the Sliema Police Station arrived on the spot.

Another officer asked some workers further up the road to hose down her car before the concrete went hard and caused further damage.

As soon as her car was pulled out, she said she stopped two women from stepping into the unnoticeable trap.

To add insult to injury, at around 5 p.m., when the cement in the ditch had dried, a truck pulled up and a young man set up four plastic barriers on top of the hardened concrete.

The extent of the damage to the car is not yet known.

Describing the accident as “unacceptable”, the woman said the area was becoming unbearable by the day as residents struggled to find parking spaces.

After the Qui-Si-Sana embellishment project, the area was stripped of its parking spots, and the remaining places are all taken up by trucks, she said.

When she enquired about the contractor carrying out the road works in order to be able to claim car insurance, the police informed her they could not disclose his identity because of data protection.

The police also informed her that the Sliema council was not aware of any work being carried out on the road.

Dragut Road, corner with McIver Street, has been resurfaced around three times in less than a year.

The Sunday Times attempted to find out who was responsible for the works.

The Sliema Police Station said questions should be directed at Transport Malta and the Sliema council. Questions sent to Transport Malta remained unanswered at the time of going to print while Sliema mayor Johanna Gonzi was unreachable yesterday.