Driver 'lucky to be alive' after tree falls on car

An 18-year-old driver has said she is "so lucky to be alive" after a tree crashed onto her car.

Lily Brown, who passed her test in October, was driving near Barnstaple Hospital on the B3230 on Thursday when she saw the tree "start to go and it was just complete panic".

In a split-second decision, she chose to brake. She believes that choice saved her life. "I think... if I chose to do anything else, it could have ended a lot, lot, lot worse."

She was taken to A&E with head and neck pain and later found to have internal bruising. "The police said 'You are so lucky to be alive'," she said.

Brown said she was driving alone from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe on Thursday when the tree fell as she rounded a corner.

The tree smashed through the front of her car, shattering the windscreen on the driver's side.

"When the tree crashed down, I think I just completely blacked out in that moment and I think that's the shock of it all," she said.

Her door was blocked by branches, leaving her trapped until passers-by stepped in. A vicar and another man cleared debris so she could climb out, cutting her leg on broken glass as she escaped.

The crash has knocked her confidence behind the wheel. "It has made me very anxious about to keep going," she said.

Despite the shock, Brown said the biggest thing she has taken from the experience is how differently it could have ended. "That was the scariest thing… just knowing it could have ended so differently."

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