A WOMAN has told how she cradled a seriously-injured accident victim in her arms for an hour after his own mother was badly hurt in a car crash.

The terrified five-year-old boy clung on to his rescuer Kim Cleasby while paramedics tended to his 22-year-old pregnant mother and other victims of the smash on Eldon Bank, near Shildon, County Durham, on Sunday night.

The boy and his mother, who are from Newton Aycliffe, and a 32- year-old Bishop Auckland man travelling in another car, were all in a critical condition in separate hospitals last night.

The boy’s father, 24, who had been sitting in the front seat of the family Seat Cordoba while his wife drove them home from visiting her family, was treated in The University Hospital of North Durham for fractured ribs.

Their car was in collision with a Mazda driven by a 17-year-old man from Bishop Auckland who suffered a minor injury.

A 40-year-old woman, who was sitting behind the 32-year-old and is also from Bishop Auckland, broke her wrist.

None of the victims has been named by police.

The Seat was thrown into the air by the impact and landed on its roof after hitting a 12ft pole.

It was still spinning round when Mrs Cleasby, 33, and her 40-year-old husband, Jessy, ran from their home in Main Street a few yards away.

Mr Cleasby and his 39-year-old brother-in-law, Alan Sisson, managed to get the boy and his father out of the car as emergency services rushed to the scene.

Mrs Cleasby, who has two children, said: “I grabbed the boy from Alan and took him to one side where it was quiet.

“It was a horrific scene that I never want to see again. There were ambulances, fire engines and police cars, the air ambulance arrived and the horses in the next field went mad. The boy clung on to me. He wouldn’t let go, he was absolutely terrified.

“He was drifting in and out of consciousness, so I talked to him about things like motorbikes and Spiderman.

“He was a very brave little boy.

His family should be very proud of him. I went with him in the ambulance to hospital because he would not let me leave him.

“I told him he was my best friend and I would see him when he was better.”

Everybody at the scene realised how serious the accident was.

Mrs Cleasby said: “People came out of the houses with blankets and water. Everybody pulled together.

“We are all angry because we have wanted something done about the crossroads for years.”

Police have appealed for witnesses to the crash, which happened at 8pm, and closed the road for four hours. Call the road policing unit on 0191-375-2157.