A MOTHER has told how her son was pulled from his blazing car just hours after they discussed the Lancashire Telegraph's Wasted Lives campaign.

Ellen Byker said the accident involving Jason McKenzie, 21, highlighted just how easily young drivers could get killed or injured on the roads.

And she said the accident, when his 1,600cc S-reg silver Citroen Saxo flipped over, proved just how important it was for the campaign to educate youngsters about dangers on the roads.

Jason, of Sutherland Street, Colne, was taken to Burnley General Hospital with a broken right leg and head injuries after his car crashed into a house on the A59 at Sawley, as it was heading towards Clitheroe at 7.30am yesterday.

He had only bought the car two days earlier and passed his test two months ago.

Police said that car had mounted a grass bank, hit a dry stone wall, flipped upside down, hit the house and ended up in the garden. The cause of the accident is not yet known but police said speed could not be ruled out.

Farm labourer Richard Barnes, 22, of Gisburn, climbed into the car and cut Jason's seat belt and pulled him out of the flames while three of his colleagues who happened upon the accident put out the fire.

Jason's mother, 39, praised the quick thinking of the farmer and her son's colleagues and said: "It is a miracle that he wasn't more badly hurt."

She backed the Wasted Lives campaign, saying: "This incident highlights the dangers that there are on the roads for young drivers.

"Only the night before we were sitting down talking about the Telegraph's front page.

"We were both horrified by the picture of the crash which it showed.

"He has only just passed his test and I warned him to beware of the dangers that there are on the road.

"It was terrifying going to see him at the hospital but he was OK. I managed to speak to him a little bit but I couldn't get much out of him because he had been given a lot of pain-killing drugs.

"He has got bolts in his leg holding it together and staples in his head where he has got a huge cut.

"He is a sensible lad and hard working. He works seven days a week and wouldn't speed."

The man who saved Jason were working at the farm across from the house where the car crashed.

The woman who owns the farm along with her husband, but asked not to be named, said Richard had cut Jason's seatbelt with his penknife and dragged him from the car.

She said: "He, along with his friend Christopher Dugdale, got water from the yard and diced with death as they dashed across the road. They put the flames out.

"They are heroes for what they did."

Jason is one of 13 children, the eldest boy, and was working as a bricklayer in Clitheroe.

His mum said that he had set off for work from their home in Colne at just after 7am.

Sergeant Mick Young, of Accrington Road Policing Unit, said it had been a foggy morning and speed could not be ruled out as an explanation for the crash that involved no other vehicles or people.

Police are currently awaiting the results of a blood test.

Sgt Young said the incident had been particularly traumatising for Mr Barnes as he recently lost his friends Samuel Lund, 19, and James Dewhurst, 16, from Rimington, who died in a road accident in January.

He said that Mr Barnes had been at work, at the farm opposite the accident, for about an hour when the crash happened.

Three building labourer colleagues of Jason's had been travelling separately to work in a van used buckets of water to put out the fire in the car's engine bay.

Sgt Young said: "He was traumatised by the accident but he was still keen to help.

"He has done a magnificent job, and we would like to thank him for that.

"We cannot rule out that speed was a factor, it was a foggy morning, and this is something we are investigating."