Driver's skill saved us, say his friends

THE car passengers who walked away from a head-on collision with a half-ton heifer today told the Evening Press of their gratitude to the driver.

After the late-night crash with the escaped heifer wrote off their Peugeot 106, three friends hailed driver Robert Underwood as a hero.

Robert, 18, of Allerton Bywater, maintained control of his car when he faced the animal on a wet and rainy night on the A1041 near the Barlow turn-off. He later said the incident had been like a scene from the film Jurassic Park.

"If he had swerved, we could have all died," said Carlo Cunningham, 18, who was sitting in the front passenger seat at the time of the collision and was briefly knocked unconscious.

"He has been driving a couple of months, but he did well. We were inches away from death."

The young men, all friends from their days at Selby High School, were visibly shaken after the accident which occurred as they drove home from McDonalds in Goole.

The car was a write-off following the crash with the animal, which the Evening Press has learned had escaped from Selby Cattle Market earlier in the day.

The roof caved in and the windscreen was smashed. The two passengers in the rear, Wes Brook, 20, and Ryan King, 18, believe they were saved by their seatbelts.

"I'm not sure if I am going to drive again," said Robert, who is currently unemployed.

"After the crash we just sat there in a state of shock. And then we saw the creature get up, with blood dripping from its mouth, and it started nudging and banging the car.

"It was like something out of Jurassic Park."

Chris Clubley, managing director of Screetons, the auctioneers at Selby Cattle Market, confirmed that a heifer had charged through a fence at the Bawtry Road centre earlier in the day.

"We went out to look for it, but we lost sight of it," he told the Evening Press. "The police were informed."

He confirmed that the heifer was due to be sold for slaughter.

Police confirmed they received a report that a beast had been sighted in the area at 10.30pm, about an hour before the accident, and an extensive search was undertaken.

A spokesman added that a member of the public had reported herding the animal into a field at 10.45 pm.

PICTURE: The wrecked Peugeot 106 car after it was charged by a half-ton heifer