Woman thanks Brierfield driver who helped her after M60 crash

Elizabeth Shelby, 65, from Pilling, was leaving the M60 at junction 15 on Tuesday night at around 9pm, but lost control of the vehicle after going into what she described as a “sneezing fit”.

After colliding with the right-hand barrier, she was unable to move her Land Rover Evoque from the outside lane over to the hard shoulder.

She rang for the police and stepped out of the car when she thought they had arrived, but it turned out to be Ben Jones, a delivery driver from Brierfield, who had seen Elizabeth in distress and pulled over to help her.

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Elizabeth said: “All these cars were zooming off the motorway and blaring their horns.

"I was convinced I was going to get hit by one of those vehicles, a car or a lorry, coming off there.

“I was scared sitting in the car because cars were missing me by inches. Some of them were blaring their horns, as if I was sat there painting my nails.

"If I could have moved the car over to the hard shoulder then I would have done but it wouldn’t move.

“I was talking to the police on the phone and I thought it was a police officer that had stopped and walked across.

"I told the police I think they’re here and he was surprised and said to ask who it is. He said he’d just stopped to see if I was okay.

“He came over, he was wearing a hi-vis vest and checked on me. He had a quick look at my car and said he thought there was something wrong with my axle.

“He positioned himself about six feet behind my car and was waving at traffic to pull into the other lane. I don’t know how he didn’t get hit.

Junction 15 of the M60, where Elizabeth crashed (Image: Google Streetview)

“It wasn’t until the police turned up they slowed down and even then some of them didn’t slow down. They were just whizzing past so far. That was more frightening than the actual accident.”

Elizabeth was eventually helped by her son who she had also called after the collision, and Ben stayed with her until his arrival to make sure she was safe.

“He did not even consider moving from the scene. Just before the police turned up my son arrived because I’d called him and he asked who he was.

"I said that this gentleman had been stood making sure I didn’t get rear-ended and my son shook his hand.

“I am truly very grateful and although I thanked him, as did my son, it doesn’t seem enough. He restored my faith in humanity.

"There are some genuinely, good, decent people in the world and this young man is definitely one of them.”

Ben was aware of the dangers of pulling over to assist Elizabeth, but said that he would have “blamed himself” if something bad had happened and he knew that he could have stopped to help.

He said: “If I saw that a car had collided with something on the motorway and somebody would’ve been hurt, I would blame myself for that.

"Even though it’s not my fault and I shouldn’t really stop because I’m endangering my life and there could have been another fatality, but I try to help everyone out.

Ben Jones (Image: Ben Jones)

“There must have been a good six or seven vehicles that nearly went into the back of her car. I felt very concerned for her.

“You can imagine the fast lane on a slip road, you could have artics coming that way that are potentially going to smash right into the back of her.

“I probably shouldn’t have done it but at that time I didn’t care. I thought ‘this woman is on her own – that’s someone’s mum.”

Police eventually dealt with the accident and Elizabeth’s car was taken away to a garage.