A GROUP of students had a lucky escape on Friday the 13th after they walked away from a terrifying road accident with only cuts and bruises. Five university students on their way to a birthday celebration suffered only minor injuries after the car they we

A GROUP of students had a lucky escape on Friday the 13th after they walked away from a terrifying road accident with only cuts and bruises.

Five university students on their way to a birthday celebration suffered only minor injuries after the car they were in was thrown in the air and rolled 20 metres from the road, smashing it to pieces.

Jasmine Parker, 20, of Soham and Tristan Gale, 19, of Fordham, shared a car with university friends on their journey to Miss Parker's birthday celebrations in Cambridge when a silver Mercedes overtook them on the A10 near Chittering at around 7.40pm.

"I would say it was going at about 80mph," Mr Gale said.

Another car travelling in the opposite direction was forced to swerve to avoid the Mercedes and was dragged into a ditch and Mr Gale was forced to take action.

"As he tried to turn out of the ditch, he lost control of his car - the back started to slide out and he then got traction and came across the road."

Mr Gale, who has taken responsive driving courses through volunteer work with the ambulance service, accelerated to try to get past the car, but when he realised there would be a collision, he was forced to turn into the vehicle to prevent a head-on collision.

A glancing blow threw his Renault Scenic sideways.

"It's very hard to say, but I think we rolled between two and five times," he said.

All of the party, including the pair's three friends, were taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where they were treated for minor injuries and the driver of the other car was also unharmed, but they acknowledge that they were very fortunate to have survived.

"It was very lucky and if it had been a different car you might have been looking at five coffins," Mr Gale said.

"We would like to say thank you to two nurses who stopped and made sure everything was okay."

Miss Parker's father, Andy Parker, is furious that the other driver may have seen the accident and driven off.

"If it were me, my conscience would not have let me drive away," he said, adding that one fire-fighters who arrived at the scene had asked if there were bodies left in the car when he saw the wreck at the roadside.

A police spokesperson said that failing to stop is a criminal offence.

"We would appeal to anyone who witnessed this accident to contact us on 0845 456 456 4 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.