Loaf of bread saves woman's life in car crash

A woman who survived a serious road crash when her car overturned in a ditch has said she owes her life to a loaf of bread. Mother-of-two Liz Douglas, 51, said the Hovis loaf cushioned her head when her Nissan Note hatchback flipped over after hitting a telegraph pole. The accident happened on the B829 near Inversnaid at about 5pm on Monday, while Mrs Douglas was on her way home to Stronachlachar, near Loch Lomond, from a shopping trip in Glasgow.

She was trapped upside down in the car for more than an hour, with the sliced white loaf wedged between her head and the roof, until emergency services cut her free, but escaped serious injury. Mrs Douglas said she had written to Hovis owners Premier Foods to thank them and was considering keeping the bread - which still contains the impression of her head - as a souvenir. "I was upside down in this ditch, and could feel something under my head, and realised it was the loaf," she said.



"The loaf had been thrown from the back seat of the car and landed on the roof of car inside the vehicle in time to cushion my head during its contact with the roof of the vehicle. For some reason the airbags didn't inflate so the loaf was really the only cushion I had. It helped keep me comfortable the whole time. As far as I'm concerned it stopped my head hitting the top of the car and saved my life."

Mrs Douglas was rescued after a local woman, Shirley Leek, saw her car stranded in the ditch and called the emergency services. Her son, Alan, later recovered the loaf from the accident repair centre and returned it to his mother. She said: "I will never be able to eat it because it's got blood on the front of the wrapper and glass from the cash inside. Now we can see the funny side, but it could have been so much worse and I'm so grateful that I managed to walk away with just cuts and bruises."