A WOMAN has told how she is lucky to be alive following a three-car collision in a busy town centre.

Stephanie May Henry has said if she had not bent down to put her mobile phone in her bag, she would have been killed when a black Vauxhall Astra struck her parked car on Friday night, in Darlington.

The Astra pushed Ms May Henry’s car, a red Astra, into another vehicle before it mounted the pavement and ended up on its roof close to the roundabout at the bottom of Northgate.

Ms May Henry said her four-year-old son would normally have been in the car and it was fortunate there was nobody on the pavement.

Even a goldfish which her son, Aaron Turner, had won at a fairground that evening survived the crash.

Ms May Henry, her partner Garry Turner and their son had been at a fairground at The Northern Echo Darlington Arena on Friday evening.

On the way back they parked outside a kebab shop, in Northgate, and Mr Turner and Aaron went inside to get some food.

Ms May Henry, who was sat in the back of the car, called her sister to tell her what a good evening they had had.

However, she was not in, so Ms May Henry leant forward to put her phone back in her handbag.

“There was just a bang and that was all I heard,” said Ms May Henry. “The police said afterwards if I hadn’t been down, then I would have been killed.

“My sister always picks up the phone, but this time she didn’t.

“My partner came out of the kebab shop and dragged me out as he saw the car was smoking.

“My little boy saw the whole thing. It’s lucky, as normally he would have been in the car as well, but he was so excited after the funfair he wanted to go in the shop with his dad.”

Ms May Henry received whiplash and a crushed foot, but more tests need to be done to see if there is any permanent nerve damage on her foot.

Her son, Aaron, became distraught as he thought the goldfish he had won had been killed in the accident.

Ms May Henry said: “He was heartbroken and we thought there was no way it could have survived.

“But then when we went back to the salvage yard the next day we managed to find it alive.

“We couldn’t believe it.

“It could have been so much worse.”

The driver of the black Astra was taken to hospital and questioned by police.

Inquiries are still ongoing.