A TINY tot sparked a string of disasters after she let the handbrake off the family car and watched it roll 100 yards down a busy main road.

The white Volvo saloon scraped a P-reg Peugeot before swerving to the other side of the road and crashing into a Nissan Micra.

The force of the impact pushed the car into its owner Azwar Shah, who was loading the boot. He was knocked to the ground and suffered cuts and bruises to his face and legs.

Luckily, little Rosie Butler managed to jump from the front passenger seat of the Volvo before it picked up speed down Barkerhouse Road, Nelson.

Her mum, Sue, of Townhouse Road, Nelson, said the accident was a warning to other parents.

"I was on my way home and because it was only a short distance I let Rosie sit in the front.

"I'd gone into the shop and left her in the car. I heard a child scream and I instinctively rushed out of the shop.

"A woman was bringing her across the road and at first I thought she'd been knocked down. "Rosie kept saying the car had gone away and then I looked down the road and saw it."

Mrs Butler said the Volvo had just gone through its MOT and had a new handbrake cable fitted.

"Before that it was slack and you had to pull it on hard," she explained. "I used to leave it in first gear. But once it was mended I just put the handbrake on.

"Rosie said she had let the brake off and then she must have jumped out of the car as it started to roll backwards.

"It's incredible she wasn't hurt. I just hope other parents see how easy it is for something like this to happen. I'm never going to leave her alone in the car again."

Mr Shah, 36, of Barkerhouse Road, was taken to Burnley General Hospital but left after treatment.

His wife Robina said: "He had the hatchback up and was loading stuff into the car. The Volvo didn't have its engine running so he didn't hear it coming.

"He hit his face on the ground. Our car's a complete mess at the front."

The accident happened at Sunday tea-time.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.