( I should be in advertising )

"We are extremely lucky. If we were in any other van we would have been
pretty much dead," he said.

http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=541&ArticleID=1385123

We're so lucky to be alive
Freak accident victim pays tribute to 999 crews
A father-of-six crushed beneath a giant fallen tree was the first to
tell his fiancée he was the victim of a life-threatening road
accident.

Jon Campbell, 25, of Holgate Drive, somehow managed to reach for his
mobile and phone his partner while pinned to the driver's seat during a
dangerous rescue operation on Friday afternoon.

The van had been hit by the eight-tonne beech tree as Jon and his
workmate Danny Hirst, 27, of Houghton Regis, drove home along the A416
Chesham Road, near Berkhamsted.

A rescue team took three hours to get both men out of the Anglian Home
Improvements vehicle before air-lifting them to the John Radcliffe
hospital in Oxford.

Jon, who was discharged on Monday with a broken back and wrist and
numerous cuts and bruises, said the men realised they were fortunate to
be alive.

"We are extremely lucky. If we were in any other van we would have been
pretty much dead," he said.

The Mercedes Sprinter was hit by the tree on a wooded road as the two
self-employed roof-trim fitters, sub-contracted to Anglian, were
returning from a job in Chesham.

For the full dramatic story and more pictures, see the March 15 edition
of the Luton News and Dunstable Gazette.
16 March 2006

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