In episode three, an 18-year-old girl lies trapped in her overturned car and falls unconscious as it slowly submerges into a murky quagmire, and a motorway journey for a family of four
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In episode three, an 18-year-old girl lies trapped in her overturned car and falls unconscious as it slowly submerges into a murky quagmire, and a motorway journey for a family of four turns into a nightmare when their car ploughs into the central reservation and into the path of oncoming traffic.
Christmas Eve night, St Austell, Cornwall, and care worker Dannie Phillips lies trapped in her overturn car after it veers of the road during heavy floods and ploughs into a tree. She says: ‘The water was rising quickly and I thought, ‘I’ve got to get out, I’ve got to get out of this.’’
Spotting the upturned car, passer-by Mike Tate says: ‘As I approached the car my fears were the worst, I really didn’t know how anybody could’ve survived the impact and I steeled myself really for the worst kind of picture.’
With the murky waters fast approaching her face, Dannie says: ‘When they say your life flashes before you, it really does. I just remember looking up at the moon and thinking, ‘Is this really my time?’…I’m 18, I wanted to have a family, I wanted to get married one day and I thought that’s all going to be taken away from me.’
Off-duty Emergency Care Nurse Lizzie Wheatcroft and husband Lee appear on the scene and with a combined effort prise the driver’s side door open, though they’re unable to see anyone amidst the water and debris.
Scanning the car in the darkness, Lizzie says: ‘My gaze came round and I could see this bright red hair floating and it just shone in the moonlight. I couldn’t see a face or any body, she was deep…I wrapped my hand round all this red hair until I got to her head and I just yanked it as hard as I could and a head came out of the water…but she was blue, I didn’t think she was alive at all. She had, in all effect, drowned.’
Knowing she must act quickly, Lizzie clambers into the car and starts giving Dannie some breaths and tells husband Lee to hit her hard on her chest.