Cheshire family 'cheated death' after horror crash on way back from KFC

"I genuinely thought we were going to die, it was terrifying"

A Cheshire family "cheated death" after a terrifying crash on their way home from KFC. Rachel Swift and her family had made the journey "hundreds of times" - but on this occasion it almost had a harrowing ending.

A car collided with them, flipped onto its roof and then landed on their own vehicle. Mum-of-two Rachel, 33, described the terrifying moment she thought she was going to be killed alongside her partner and youngest daughter Dottie, six.

She recalled grabbing her daughter from her car seat inside their mangled car and running from the scene as fast as she could. The family had been to drop Rachel's oldest daughter Ellie in Liverpool city centre before "grabbing a KFC" and heading home to Widnes with Dottie, reports the ECHO.

Rachel's partner Gary Downey, 37, had been driving the family along Childwall Valley Road when a car collided with them, before flipping onto its roof, landing on their own bonnet and hitting the floor. Describing the terrifying collision, Rachel said: "We were on our way home from Liverpool. As we were driving along home the car behind us kept getting really close.

"Then two minutes later as we were driving along Childwall Valley Road my partner told me to look at the car behind because it was right behind us, then it's gone into the back of us. I looked out of the window again and the car was on the grass verge at the side of our car. It crashed into the bus stop, then a tree, then flipped onto the front of our car and landed on its roof in front of us.

"The first time the car hit us it crashed into the back of our car. Then I saw it in the mirror, I wondered where it was going. Then it hit the bus stop and the tree." Merseyside Police said they were called to a crash on Childwall Valley Road at around 5.20pm on Sunday, November 16. Emergency services attended and one person was taken to hospital as a precaution.

The mum feared she was going to be killed alongside her family. She said: "I had my little girl in the back of the car, she is only six. It was bad enough for us, but even worse having her in the car with us. When I looked out of the mirror and saw the car I genuinely thought we were going to die, it was terrifying. As soon as it happened I got my baby out of the car and I ran, I was screaming to Gary to get away from it.

"She [Dottie] was on her iPad with her headphones in when it happened and couldn't hear anything. I was shouting her but she didn't respond straight away - it made me panic." Gary stayed with the other driver until emergency services arrived at the scene, said Rachel. She said: "People came out of their houses to help and some people who lived nearby made me and my daughter hot drinks."

She added: "Gary said the driver had to be cut out of his car and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. We've not heard anything since and we want to know he is ok. Police told us he'd suffered a medical episode and that's what caused the crash. He passed a breathalyser and drugs test at the scene."

The mum says she is just happy they were all ok. She told the ECHO their car has been written off and that the other vehicle was "in a complete mess" following the crash. She said: "My daughter is shaken up, we all are, but she's ok. She has gone to school as normal today, she was complaining of a sore arm but I think that's just from where the seatbelt pulled her."

She said: "He is lucky to have made it out the car, I can't stop thinking about him and the whole accident. It was a genuine freak accident, but it could have been such a different outcome. I was so scared, someone was definitely looking over us last night."

A spokesperson for Merseyside Police said: "We received a report of a collision involving two vehicles on Childwall Valley Road at around 5.20pm on Sunday 16 November. Emergency services attended and one person was taken to hospital as a precaution."

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