A Christmas shopping trip ended in a car smash with three generations of a family needing hospital treatment.

Sheryl Goodearl was driving along Bligh Way, Strood, with daughter Mikaela and her children Kaiden, three, and Leah, 22 months, when they stopped to let a man cross the road.

But as they turned right into Scholars Rise, they were in collision with a Mercedes, tipping their car on to two wheels before it crashed back down.

The crash punctured a hole in the side of Sheryl’s car, and set the airbags off.

Mikaela, 26, said: “The car started to fill with smoke and we were trapped, the doors locked from the inside.

"I looked behind me, and Leah’s face was covered in blood.

"I saw the woman from the other car get out and go and sit on the wall. Then the man who we’d just let past ran back to help us.”

He got Sheryl out of the car as well as Kaiden, who escaped uninjured.

"Mikaela passed Leah over, before climbing out of the driver’s door herself.

"Leah had struck her head against the car seat with huge force and was left cut and bruised. She struggled to open her left eye for a few days."

Mikaela, of Willow Road, Strood, added: “This man was our rock.

"Mum was having trouble breathing as she had bruised her chest plate really badly, but he stayed with us and helped to comfort my children until the ambulance arrived.

"We were taken to hospital and he disappeared on to a bus.

“I’m covered in bruises from where the plastic of the car door hit me, I’ve got marks on my chest from the seat belt.

"But the pain didn’t set in until we got out of the car.

"Now Leah shouts ‘bang’ whenever she gets into a car, and screams when she hears loud bangs or crashes on the television.

"Kaiden has had nightmares every evening since, where he wakes up crying and saying ‘we’ve crashed, Leah is going to die’.”

The family are hoping to find the man who helped them as they would like to thank him personally. He is described as white, quite tall, in his late 20s and carrying a rucksack.

It is thought he got on a 141 or 140 bus shortly after the crash on Thursday 10 last week at around 9.15am.

They want anybody who saw the incident to come forward as a witness. Sheryl, Mikaela and Leah were all treated in hospital, with Kaiden treated for shock at the scene and then taken home by a friend.

To be put in contact with the family, email or call 01634 227830.