A YOUNG woman driver and her father had a lucky escape after their car overturned and landed upside-down in a water-filled ditch.

The pair were travelling along the A228, near their home in Lower Stoke, near Strood, when a car overtook them and clipped the driver’s side of Jackie Wellard's silver Vauxhall Corsa. It caused her to swerve into the muddy dyke.

Speaking to Medway Messenger from her home after the ordeal, Ms Wellard, 19, a single mother, said: "I’m still shaken up and I don’t remember much about the accident.

"But I do remember the car full of water and a man pulling me out. I must have lost consciousness at some point."

A driver who stopped to help Ms Wellard and her 52-year-old father Alan Stirling pulled her out of the car. She may have drowned had he not found her.

Ms Wellard added: "I just can’t believe it happened. I can’t remember much, but we’re so lucky to be alive. We owe the man who pulled us out our lives and if it wasn’t for him, I might not be talking to you now."

Neither Ms Wellard nor her father suffered serious injury but her car is a write-off.

The emergency services were called and firefighters and police raced to the scene, but were astounded to find the car empty.

A spokesman for Strood Fire Station said: "When we arrived, we were expecting to find people trapped in the car. The car radio and headlights were still on.

"We checked the surrounding area for casualties, but apparently they had been able get out of the car and make their way home. Whoever was in the car is extremely lucky to be alive.

In March 2000 a lorry driver, Kenneth Geddes and his six-year-old passenger Daniel Write died when the lorry they were travelling in overturned in the same dyke.