Melton mum thanks drivers who stopped to rescue her toddler daughter in road crash

Ella Gibson (26) was driving along the A607 near Frisby on Sunday in heavy sleet when one of the wheels of her Mazda suddently broke off and sent the vehicle across the road.

The car, with daughter Isla in her child seat, ended up on its side in a ditch and facing in the opposite direction.

Ella, who lives in Melton, said they were both trapped until passing drivers stopped to help.

“I screamed as the car flipped on to its side in the ditch and Isla was crying,” she recalled.

“It all seemed to happen in slow motion and it was very frightening.

“Four people came to help and I am so grateful to them.

“They flipped the car back on to its wheels and helped us both to get out.

“I really want to thank the people who helped because I don’t know what we would have done if they hadn’t been there.”

One of those who happened to be driving behind Ella was Jeremy Edwards, of the Leicestershire and Rutland 4X4 Response, a group of volunteers who assist the emergency services using their own vehicles.

He said: “I stopped my vehicle and asked my wife to ring the authorities and went to the car, which was resting on the passenger side with the engine running and the wipers going.

“The adult female occupant was frantically trying to get her toddler daughter out.

“I got her to stop and brace herself and then myself and two passersby rolled the vehicle back onto its wheels.

“The offside rear wheel had sheered off.”

A passing nurse also stopped to check on Ella and Isla, who were also later examined in hospital, before driving them home.

A Leicestershire Police spokesperson said: “We were notified around noon on Sunday about a car leaving the carriageway between Melton Mowbray and Frisby and coming to rest in a ditch.

“The driver and a small child, a little girl, were in the car, and they were assisted by members of the public.

“People stopped to assist the driver and the child to get out of the car and a passing nurse stopped to drive them both home.”

l Emergency services were called out to a number of incidents on the roads in the Melton area as snow fell on Sunday.

Four vehicles were involved in a collision on the A46 near Six Hills.

East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) said three casualties were taken to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

A spokesperson said: “We received a call at 11.48am about a road traffic collision on the A46.

“We sent an ambulance car and three ambulances and a community first responder also attended.”

A Leicestershire Police spokesperson said: “We were called at 11.45am about a road traffic collision involving four vehicles.

“It happened on the A46 near the turn off for Six Hills and the road was closed to traffic for more than an hour.

“All four vehicles were recovered from the scene.”

l Several roads were blocked throughout the Melton borough on Thursday after high winds caused trees to fall across them.

Leicestershire County Council’s highways teams were kept busy recovering trees which fell across Welby Lane at Asfordby Valley and on Six Hills Lane, between Grimston and Wartnaby.

Reports were also made about others which dropped on Scalford Road, near Scalford Hall Hotel, and also close to the Long Clawson turning, where a power line was brought down.

Drivers also had to be vigilant on the B6047 at Great Dalby, where a tree was blocking most of the road on a hill on the Melton side of the village.

Another fell on the Melton Road at Thurmaston.