Motorist 'saved from tree by divine intervention'

A motorist credited divine intervention after she escaped unharmed when a 65ft tree was blown down onto her car.

Chris Challinor, 70, was driving to church on Sunday morning when the beech crashed onto the bonnet of her Volkswagen Polo.



The front of the car was completely crushed by the trunk - meaning she would have been killed if the vehicle was just a few yards further along the road. She suffered only shock during the incident at 10.30am on Sunday and the grandmother-of-six says she is ''very lucky to be alive''.

Mrs Challinor, of Cheltenham, Glos., said: ''I feel incredibly fortunate. If the tree had come down half a second later I would have been killed.


Photo from here.

''The whole thing is a blur because it happened so quickly. I just remember coming to an immediate stop with the huge trunk smashing into the bonnet.

''I was frozen in shock until the police and fire service came to release me. I was sorry not to make it to church but I think someone may have been looking down on me after all.''