Driver who nearly died in Peak District crash thanks Air Ambulance

Dave Farmer suffered multiple injuries in the near-fatal crash in the Hope Valley last year - including a fractured skull, collapsed lungs and a broken jaw, ribs and eye socket.

He also had two bleeds on the brain.

“I am so grateful to be alive,” he said. “It’s all down to the quick response of the air ambulance which transferred me to the critical care unit where I spent a week. They saved my life.”

Dave, 56, was driving along Winnats Pass on May 23 2016 and remembers a car travelling at speed coming towards him on the approach to a bend.

In a split second Dave’s car was in flames after the oncoming vehicle flipped and landed on top of it.

He says he has no memory of the impact and found out afterwards how he was pulled out of his burning car before the flames took hold.

But since then it has been a long path to recovery for Dave.

He has been left with some loss of hearing and vision, acquired dyslexia and ongoing problems with his wrist and fingers which means he can no longer run his joinery business.

He said: “I can’t really complain and am well on the way to recovery. My overriding emotion after everything that has happened is that I am very grateful to be here. My grandson was only four months’ old when the accident happened and I can see him grow up thanks to the quick response of the air ambulance and medical treatment I had.”

The Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance crew was at the scene at 8.36 am and he was at Royal Stoke Hospital at 9.27am. Now Dave, from Cheshire wants to give his thanks to those who saved him.

He added: “No words and no amount of fundraising can express my and my family’s gratitude. What we have been through has been horrendous. I am lucky to be alive and people should know that it is all thanks to the air ambulance.”