A mum has described how a split- second decision to brake rather than accelerate saved her life as a tree crashed down onto her car during a freak storm.

Tracey Cox had just left work and was driving along Hermitage Lane in Maidstone when the sky darkened, the wind howled and hail stones began to lash down on her silver Vauxhall Corsa.

As she drove through the bad weather, a fallout from Storm Jake, which battered the country for several days, the 46-year-old heard a terrifying sound.

Mrs Cox said: “All of a sudden the weather came out of nowhere. I just heard this crack and suddenly a tree was coming towards me.

“I had to decide whether to try to accelerate underneath it or brake and hope I stopped before it. I braked.

“If I had accelerated, or I’d been two seconds further up the road, the tree would have come in through the windscreen, or smashed down onto the roof, and I might not be here now.

“I’d just left work to go to a physio appointment at the hospital – I only got two minutes up the road. I just sat there in shock.”

The tree fell onto the car’s bonnet, crushing the radiator, smashing the headlights and causing thousands of pounds of damage.

Luckily the mum of two, who works as a trainer at charity mcch, which supports people with learning disabilities, was not injured in the freak accident last Wednesday.

However, her car is still in the garage being repaired.

She said the silver lining to her experience was the reaction from members of the public who ran out of buildings and a nearby construction site and jumped out of their vehicles to help.

One man even produced a chainsaw and cut up the tree, which was blocking the road.

She added: “Everyone appeared from nowhere to help. It was really nice and I would like to thank them, particularly my colleague Claire Wye who ran
along the road to make sure I was okay.

“I was in shock for a while and I’ve got to pay a £300 excess on my insurance, which is annoying, but I know I was very lucky.”