Cyclists spotted crash wreckage in ditch next to Littlehampton lane

Matthew Langridge and Amy Wells were riding along Ferry Road on Tuesday evening (June 15) when they saw a battered car in a ditch beside the road.

"When we got level with the car it was so far into the ditch I could hardly see it. It looked like it had been dumped there.

"Then we heard some noises and realised that there was someone down there. There was a young woman in the rear passenger seat who was trying to climb out and the driver was trying to kick his door open, which was jammed.

"I told him to calm down, as the passenger in the front seat looked like he had been badly injured and we didn't want the car to move and make his injuries worse. I could see there was a lot of metal and glass pushing into his chest.

"We helped the young woman out of the back of the car and phoned the emergency services and Amy, who is an occupational therapist, was taking instructions from the 999 people on what I could do to help while the ambulance was on its way.

Condition deteriorated

"The man in the front passenger seat was unconscious at first but he was talking later when they got him out of the car and didn't seem too badly injured. He said it felt like he had broken his arm. He seemed fairly stable, but shocked."

Matthew said he thought they arrived on the scene within a few minutes of the accident happening. It's thought no other vehicle was involved, and the car hit a tree. It was 6.36pm when they dialled 999.

The condition of the front seat passenger, thought to be a 24-year-old Littlehampton man, deteriorated after he had been released from the wreckage and he was given emergency medical treatment at the scene by Dr John Chatterjee, a volunteer with the charity South East Coast Immediate Medical Care Scheme, before being flown to hospital in Southampton by the Coastguard helicopter.

Yesterday (Wednesday) his condition was said to be "critical", but today police said his injuries remained serious, but not life-threatening.

Matthew, 30, a builder of St Winefride's Road, Littlehampton, said it was possible another car had stopped and moved a breeze block out of the way, which might have been responsible for the crash, but not realised there was a car in the ditch.

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