THE parents of a teenager who was critically injured in a car crash today spoke of their horror and said the incident had "left them in bits".

Thomas Maylor, 17, of Whitecroft View, Baxenden, was in the front passenger seat when the Seat Ibiza went out of control on a left-hand bend and ploughed into a farmer's field near Oswaldtwistle early on Sunday.

The St Mary's College, Blackburn, student is on a life support machine in the intensive care unit of the Royal Preston Hospital.

Parents Stephen and Marie, along with sisters, Emily, 16, and Ruby, nine, have been keeping a bedside vigil since the accident happened, though Emily was persuaded to go into school on Monday to complete a maths GCSE.

Dad Stephen said: "Thomas is in a very serious condition, he still hasn't regained consciousness. He is fighting for his life.

"The doctors have told us that even if they can take him off life support he isn't going to just jump out of bed.

"They are just keeping him sedated and hoping that the swelling of his brain comes down."

Stephen is recovering after a hip replacement operation he underwent two weeks ago.

He added: "We can just take it one day at a time.

"The whole family is in bits. His mother is very upset.

"The phone hasn't stopped ringing since the accident with people wishing us well."

Thomas, a former pupil at Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School, Oswald-twistle, was travelling in the car with three other 17-year-olds at the time of the accident on Haslingden Old Road at 3am last Sunday.

Two of the teenagers escaped with minor whiplash injuries.

But the driver was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary with serious lacerations to his face.

Thomas had been on a camping trip with friends on the night of the accident, after earlier that evening finishing a shift at his part-time job at the Wilkinsons store, in Accrington.

He is studying maths and science A-levels at St Mary's, in Shear Brow, and principal Kevin McMahon said the whole college was thinking of him.

Sgt Carl Simister said police were not treating the incident as suspicious at this stage, but officers were hoping soon to speak to all the boys about the incident.

He added: "The teenage driver was in his mother's car and was fully insured.

"There is no suggestion of any involvement of alcohol."