I was heading to work this morning leaving home at 0315 for a 0450 report, as usually the roads were pretty empty and when i reached the M25/A217 Junction 8 i was stopped by the red traffic lights, as i sat there waiting for them to change i heard a strange scraping noise, looking in my mirror i saw a car had overturned and was rolling towards me, i went through the red light to avoid being hit and parked up ( as pic) on small concrete verge between road to reigate and slip road onto M25.

No one else was around so i immediately called 999 and asked for fire, police and ambulance, i ran to car which was upside down on its roof, the contents of the car were all over the road as were many parts of the car, the driver was silent and i could see a baby seat in the back. I immediately started to shout " Can you hear me" " are you ok" i heard grunts and groans and as i knelt on the ground to see who was inside as the roof was so mangled it was hard to see but i established there was only one man and no on else. I was shouting " GET ME OUT GET ME OUT" and i said help was on the way and he needed to stay still as i was aware of possible neck or spinal injuries. ( thanks to my airline training)

My main concern was the rate the traffic was travelling towards the slip road and how obscured his vehicle was so i ran back to my car to get my EasyJet hi-vis, and stood in the road diverting traffic into the other lanes otherwise there could be a multiple pile up. It took 20 minutes for the police and other services to arrive, i called them at 0345 and they arrive at 0405, i also called crewing and crew dispatch to explain.

The police arrived and i spent 20 minutes in the police car giving a statement of events and confirming i would be happy to attend court should i be needed, the police reference i was given was P13299606.

It was raining, i was soaked, with kneeling on the ground my trousers were dirty and wet but i was pleased the driver was now on his way to hospital and i could head to work, i arrived at car park at 0440 and bus to Concorde house was 0445, i arrived in time to operate my SKG flight but i was shaking after the ordeal and needed to pull myself together.

I had a sweet drink and wrote down what had happened while it was fresh in my mind and waited for a CPM, by 0630 no one was in attendance so i handed by statement of events to Katy on crew dispatch and said i was heading home as had been replaced on my flight.

I drove passed the crash scene on the way home and even though it had all been cleared up it made me realise how lucky i had been that morning.