Air bags saved car crash girl’s life — dad

A father today praised the modern safety features in cars for saving his daughter from death in a head-on car crash.

Jane Sawford (28), from Royton, suffered multiple injuries on Thursday night when her VW Polo was in collision with a Skoda Octavia outside Shawside nursing home in Oldham Road, Shaw.

Jane’s stepfather Stephen Ashworth, of High Crompton, said: “It was a head -on crash and if it wasn’t for the air bags and seat belt she would be dead.”

Jane is still in the Royal Oldham Hospital recovering from her injuries which include a smashed left kneecap, two breaks in her left leg, a broken left arm, fractured ribs and broken fingers and toes, and chest injuries.

Both cars were written off in the crash which closed the road overnight and led to massive tail backs at the Big Lamp roundabout in Shaw on Friday morning.

The Skoda driver was cut from his car and taken to the Royal Oldham with a broken leg, arm and pelvis as well as suspected neck and spinal injuries. His passenger suffered facial injuries, cuts and bruises.

Mr Ashworth added: “Jane’s bruising is unbelievable. Passers by lifted her from the car before the paramedics arrived. They must have thought it would set on fire.

“She was on her way to a friend’s house and had been with us for a meal. We thought we had lost her but she is beginning to make a recovery.”

It is the second tragedy in two years for his family. In 2006, Jane’s stepbrother Sam Ashworth lost his arm when he worked as a Saturday boy at a butcher’s shop in High Crompton.