A MOTORIST had a miraculous escape after his car left a Herefordshire road, plunged down a steep slope and landed upside down in a stream.

The man was trapped in his car after it careered about 50 yards off the A4103, near Fromes Hill, in the early hours of Monday.

Luckily, a lorry driver saw his lights and pulled over to call the emergency services. Fire crews say if he hadn't been spotted, he might have been trapped for some time.

Two fire crews from Bromyard released the 23-year-old from Dudley with specialist cutting equipment and worked with Dr Malcolm Russell, a volunteer with Mercia Accident Rescue Service (MARS), to free him.

The car, which was travelling towards Worcester, close to the Evesbatch junction, had gone through a hedge, just missing a large tree, and dropped 20 to 30 feet down a steep embankment before landing in the stream.

The remarkable rescue mission was carried out under floodlights and Dr Russell, who arrived at the scene at 5.40am, found the driver in a perilous position.

"When you arrive down a muddy bank to find a car on its roof in a stream, it's always going to be a challenge," Dr Russell said. "Arriving at the scene, and looking down where the car was, I was expecting a lot worse, so it was a very lucky escape."

The driver's arm was trapped underneath the Vauxhall Corsa's roof and his legs were sticking through the sun roof into mud and water.

"He had been in the water quite a while. The issue for us was the stability of the vehicle - we did not want it to slip further into the water and collapse," said Dr Russell, who was thigh-deep in water himself.

"The fire crews managed to get an inflatable airbag underneath the car to lift it, which meant we could release his arm. We then removed him from the vehicle, taking a lot of care over the risk of injury to his spine."

Amazingly, the man, who was trapped for an hour, was released from hospital the same day and avoided serious injury.

"There could have been a very different outcome had the stream been in full flood," Dr Russell said. "If it had been last week, he would have been at least partially submerged."

Dr Russell paid tribute to firefighters, including a crew from Malvern, who cut through a fence and fixed a line to give access down the vertical drop, playing a vital role in the rescue.

Leading firefighter Simon Halling said the accident could easily have gone unnoticed.

"He was fortunate a lorry driver saw his lights and pulled over to put a call through to emergency services," he said.

"He was very lucky - had he not been seen, he would have been there for quite some time."

Neville Turner, sub-officer at Bromyard fire station, paid tribute to the public-spirited lorry driver, as well as the work of Dr Russell.

"Our gratitude goes to the lorry driver for spotting where the car was," he said. "He gave us the start we needed and that is all-important.

"Dr Russell is top notch. Paramedics are excellent and if you get a flying doctor as well, you have as good a chance as it's possible to have."

The man was taken to A&E at Hereford County Hospital but was discharged after appropriate tests were carried out.

Anyone wishing to find out more information about MARS and its work in saving the lives of people in accidents can visit www.marsbasics.org.uk