A BLACKAWTON woman has told how she managed to escape from her car just moments before it went up in flames after a head-on collision near Dartmouth.

Mrs Jacqueline Gibson, landlady of the Normandy Arms, is now recovering at home. She sustained a broken wrist, grazed knees and bruises in the crash between her Peugeot and a Mitsubishi Colt driven by a Plymouth man.

'I know that I have been very lucky,' she told the Chronicle.

Mrs Gibson explained how she was returning home after dropping her son and his friend off at Dartmouth. 'I remember coming up towards Wadstray where the road straightens up before a big bend.

'I saw a woman walking in the road, on my side, just up ahead and car lights coming towards me. I thought to myself that I had better slow down.

'All of a sudden the lights were right in front of me and a car hit me.'

Getting out of the car was a struggle for Mrs Gibson because of her injured wrist.

She was given immediate treatment for shock by two Dartmouth paramedics, Chris Brunckner and Haydn Glanville, who were fortunately travelling in a car just behind her.

As she got out of the crashed vehicle, Mrs Gibson asked someone to turn off her ignition. Unfortunately, it was too late because the car started to smoulder almost immediately.

'It was very dramatic and quite a light show,' she recalled.

'The windscreen wipers started going and the radio came on, even thought I hadn't had it playing at the time of the crash.

'Then the lights started flashing and lots of smoke, pops and bangs came out of the engine compartment.'

Also in the car with the paramedics was Dartmouth firefighter, Mark Peters, who helped to contain the fire until his colleagues arrived. Two fire crews from Dartmouth tackled the blaze after the crash near Old Stone Cross.

Dartmouth fire chief, Barrie French, said Mrs Gibson was very lucky to get out of the car before it went up in flames.

'It was a nasty head-on accident and she could easily have been trapped by her feet.

'If she had been it would have been a different story' he added.

Mr French also said it was lucky that it had been wet weather recently.

'The heat was so intense it melted the road surface. As it was the hedge and overhanging trees were badly scorched, but if it had been dry the fire would have spread into Wadstray Woods.'