A WOMAN from Chudleigh escaped with just a nose bleed after her car smashed into a tree off the A38 near Bickington during yesterday afternoon’s (Thursday, May 17) rush-hour.

Fire crews took half-an-hour to rescue the conscious casualty from her badly crumpled Citroen after it lost control and careered off the Exeter-bound carriageway between Ashburton and Drumbridges just before 5pm.

The shocked driver, in her 50s, was treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken by ambulance to Torbay Hospital for a check-up on minor injuries.

One witness at the scene said: ‘She was a very lucky woman. The car, on its side, just crumpled around her. Its modern design may just have saved her life.’

Firefighters used winches, strops and lines to make the precariously perched vehicle safe before setting about the ‘gently gently’ task of her extricating her safely.

The accident, which did not involve other vehicles, prompted a string of 999 calls from passing motorists.

Police and four fire crews - two from Newton Abbot and one each from Torquay and Ashburton - rushed to the scene.

Pumps from Torquay and Newton Abbot lost valuable minutes responding after wrongly being sent to the Chudleigh Knighton side of Drumbridges.

A fire spokesman said today: ‘The casualty was very lucky to walk away from this. It could so easily have been a fatality we were dealing with.’

Massive tailbacks of traffic were reported extending back along the highway far beyond Goodstone Cross.

Ashburton was gridlocked as motorists tried to find ways of beating the jams.

One lane of the Devon Expressway was re-opened just before 6pm at about the time when the wrecked Citroen was recovered from the scene.

A police spokesman said a local woman had since been reported for allegedly driving without care.