A WOMAN motorist had an astonishing escape when her car skidded off an icy road, hit a telegraph pole and smashed through a fence before overturning.

Barbara Earnshaw, 44, was travelling towards Bolton along Belmont Road, near Scout Road, when the accident happened this morning.

The telegraph pole was demolished and wooden splinters speared through the car as it hit the fence.

Mrs Earnshaw was trapped in the overturned car, but escaped with only minor injuries.

Mrs Earnshaw, a housing sales negotiator, from Glenshiels Avenue, Hoddlesden, near Darwen, was carried from the vehicle by paramedics and taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital.

An ambulance spokesman said: "She was a very lucky lady. I don't know how she did on Saturday, but she hit the Lottery jackpot this morning.

"She was conscious throughout and only suffered minor injuries - so much so that she even tried to sell me a house while I was treating her.

"The stretch of road was like a sheet of glass. It had a lot of ice on it and did not appear to have been treated.

"It was just outside the Bolton boundary, and you could see that Bolton had gritted up to its border."

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