A MIDLANDS family were lucky to escape with their lives when their week-long holiday in the South Hams went up in smoke even before it had started.

The two teachers and their two young children from Birmingham were travelling down the A38 on Monday in their Renault Scenic, which was towing a caravan, when the brakes failed and they took a slip road off the main carriageway at Chudleigh.

That saw them enter narrow Oldway, and by bouncing off the hedges on either side of the vehicle it was eventually brought to a halt, and they were able to bale out in the nick of time.