A crash survivor saved her own life by sliding her seat backwards seconds before a fence post smashed through her car window.

Lynda Clark, 33, could have been killed by the post - which hit her arm - had she not made the split-second decision to move her head out of the way.

The mum-of-two from Ridgewell, had dropped her children Bailey, nine, and Destiny, five, at her mum’s house just ten minutes before.

Lynda’s grey Citroen Xsara Picasso spun round twice in Halstead Road, Sible Hedingham, after the back wheel is thought to have slipped on a drain.

It then fell down a bank through a hedgerow when the first 5ft fence post blasted through Lynda’s driver-side window, falling across her legs.

Lynda then reclined her seat before a second barbed wire-covered post burst in and cut into her right arm.

The fire brigade had to cut out the boot window for Lynda to crawl through without being able to move her arm.

She was rushed to Colchester General Hospital for numerous stitches after the crash at around 7.45am.

The Gazette events coordinator, who went to Hedingham School, said: "I don’t know what made me think ‘I need to get my head out the way’ but it made the difference between me talking now or me being in a box."

See this week's Halstead Gazette for more.