Kay Hall said "It was just a case of getting him out of the car and away to hospital as quickly as possible. The fact that he survived such as appalling injury is quite unbelievable.

The huge length of wood meant they were unable to remove from the car, and had to wait until the firecrew arrived from Launceston. "Once the fire brigade arrived we decided that to save time it would be better if we cut the wood instead of taking the roof off the car." Phil said, "One of the fire crew came over with a saw and cut about three feet off the end while we held it as still as we could. It saved us valuable minutes."

Once removed from the mangled car wreck on a spinal board, Lee was transfered on to a stretcher for the helicopter journey to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth. But on his side, to avoid any movement of the wooden stake, they could not fit him onto the helicopter.

They had to discard the stretcher and take him without it . Nine minutes after taking off, the Air Ambulance arrived at hospital. A 'crash' team had already been alerted to Lee's arrival and the nature of his injuries. He was rushed into theatre, where surgeons carried out a tricky five hour operation to remove the splintered wood from his body.

After weeks in intensive care and a total of six weeks in hospital care, Lee was able to go home. He remembers virtually nothing about the accident, or the events before he was taken to hospital, but has nothing but admiration for his rescuers. "The first thing I definitely remember is seeing my sister Benita, who has come to visit me with one of her friends." he said "If it had not been for the ambulance staff I would not be here today. I owe my life to them. But what do you say to the people who saved your life? Where do you start? I don't remember anything about the accident itself or what happened immediately afterwards. In a way these people are my memory of what happened. It's all down to them.