Passenger suffers whiplash as stake spears through car
A teenage driver and her two young passengers feel they are lucky come out alive from the wreckage of their car after a crash in Torquay.
After attending the scene on the Willows estate in the early hours of yesterday, the Senior fire officer said: "It was one of those incidents where you think to yourself, how did they escape from that?"
He described who a wooden stake from a fence which the car smashed through, speared through the windscreen but thankfully missed both the driver and passengers before embedding itself in the back seat.
"How it missed them I don't know. The stake passed right between the driver's seat and the passenger's seat," said the firefighter.
The three casualties had managed to scramble from the flipped-over vehicle before the emergency services arrived.
The 18 year old driver suffered minor cuts to her arms and head while her passenger, aged 17, suffered whiplash injury.
Both were taken to Torbay Hospital by ambulance for treatment before being allowed home.
It was also found that a crowd of casualties' friends quickly gathered at the location where they took photos of the crashed car on their mobile phones.
The senior officer said: "Their responses were not appropriate in the circumstances."
However, in the case of filing a compensation claim, these pictures may come in useful.
Updated on 26/10/2009