'Miraculous' escape for boy thrown on M4

A 10-year-old boy had a miraculous escape after being thrown onto a motorway into the path of a lorry, the ambulance service said today.

The boy was "ejected" from the back seat on the busy M4 near Bristol after the car he was travelling in hit the central reservation, Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS) said.

In fact the child suffered only minor injuries after flying past a lorry and landing on the hard shoulder.

Alex Jamieson, a clinical team leader who attended the incident, which happened at about 4pm, said: "It appears that the car collided with the central reservation and spun around towards the hard shoulder.

"While spinning, the back door popped open and the boy, who was lying across the back seat, fell out. He landed on the hard shoulder, narrowly avoiding being run over by a heavy goods lorry.

"Miraculously it seems like he has sustained only superficial injuries but we strapped him onto a spinal board as a precaution. Crews took the patient to Frenchay Hospital where he will receive further assessment and treatment."

The two other passengers involved in the collision, a male and a female, were not injured.