999 crews saved me when car overturned
DOREEN ENDED UP SUSPENDED WITH SEATBELT AROUND NECK
A 78-YEAR-OLD woman found suspended with her seatbelt wrapped around her neck following a crash has thanked the emergency workers she says saved her life.
Doreen Tipper’s Kia Venga overturned after crashing into a hedge in Bath Lane, Moira, on March 29.
The cause of the accident is not known. Mrs Tipper had been driving from Coalville to her home in Coton in the Elms and does not remember the incident.
Police were first at the scene. The Derbyshire officers said they freed Mrs Tipper after finding her suspended two metres from the ground, with her seatbelt trapped around her neck.
One officer climbed into the car to support her while another released the tension to her neck.
Mrs Tipper said: “I think they saved my life. I don’t know what would have happened if it had happened somewhere else – I would have been strangled by my seatbelt.”
She remembers hearing a bang before realising she was upside down in her car.
The former home carer said: “It was scary. I woke up and the airbag had gone off and there was a woman in my window talking to me and trying to calm me down.
“I didn’t even see the police at first and then one of them got into the back of the car and held me up and one cut the seatbelt and passed the spinal board.
“They were telling me not to panic and the paramedic helped me through the window and move my legs over so they could get them down.
“I don’t know what happened. One of the officers said maybe the sun had blinded me.
“The doctors won’t let me drive because they want to find out what happened.
“I have seen a heart specialist and have had many tests. They have also said I could have a new shoulder.”
Mrs Tipper wants to make a donation to a charity chosen by her rescuers.
She said: “It means a lot. I think they saved my life.”