A DRIVER has told how he narrowly escaped serious injury after his car cleared a hedge and flew 8ft in the air before landing in a field near Castle Hill.

Darren Pearce, 23, was driving his Vauxhall Astra at Stirley Hill, Almondbury on Monday night when he ploughed off the road into a farmer’s field.

The crash happened near to Ashes Lane where 54-year-old Diane Lodge was killed in head-on-crash in December.

Mr Pearce, who escaped uninjured said: “I went round the corner and my car didn’t turn and just carried on going straight.

“It flew over the hedge and then dropped down but still kept on going.

“It then spun round and got stuck in the field.”

He added: “It all happened really fast. I was pretty shaken up.

“I tried to get out of the driver’s door but it was stuck so I climbed over and pushed the passenger door and it opened.

“It was dark but I could see the front end was totally wrecked.

“I then got back in and the engine started and I managed to turn it round but it then got stuck again.

“I then walked to the farmer’s cottage and he rang the field’s owner.”

Mr Pearce was on his way from his work as a X-ray service engineer in Armitage Bridge to his home in Shepley when the crash happened.

He added: “I feel very lucky. I know if the car had rolled it could have been a lot worse. I am gutted about my car as it is the worst start to the year. I have just blocked out what could have happened.”

He said his friend came to collect him after his ordeal and he is talking to his insurance company to recover the vehicle.

Speaking of the road conditions he said: “I have travelled that stretch every weekday for seven years.

“It is a bad stretch. I don’t know whether there was something on the road as my car hasn’t had any problems.”

He said he wasn’t speeding at the time of the crash which is on a 50mph stretch.

Field owner Caroline Fishpool (pictured) told the Examiner: “This is just the latest in a string of near misses and, sadly, near the scene of a fatal crash.

“The road is very narrow but this is the first time we have known a car end up in the field.

“The driver is very lucky. If he had knocked himself unconscious or the car had rolled it could have been very different.”

Mrs Fishpool says the latest crash reinforces concerns raised regarding the safety of the road after residents successfully campaigned for proposals for a cemetery off Hey Lane to be thrown out which they were last week.

An investigation into the fatal crash in December is being conducted by Kirklees Council Highways.

Mrs Lodge, who died in hospital shortly after the crash, was driving a white Ford Fiesta which was in collision with a blue VW Polo being driven by a 35-year-old woman travelling on the opposite side of the road towards Berry Brow.