A DRIVER who broke her back in a car crash was able to summon enough strength to lift the vehicle and rescue her friend.

Eight-and-a-half stone Kyla Smith, 23, lifted the wrecked car up just enough to allow Jonathon Connor to free himself.

The pair had been on a camping trip with Ms Smith's boyfriend at Steel Park, Washington, Tyne and Wear, and were driving to get supplies last Sunday when the one-tonne MG ZR went off the road.

She told how she lost control of the car, which hit a tree. The car came to rest on its passenger side, with Mr Connor's legs trapped underneath.

"I have no idea how I managed to lift the car," she said. "Ordinarily, I would not have been able to push it if it broke down and was on its wheels, so I really don't know how I lifted it. I suppose the adrenaline kicked in and took over."

Miss Smith, 23, and Mr Connor, 19, were taken to Sunderland General Hospital for treatment. It was found that she had fractured her spine and broken a vertebrae.

Miss Smith, who lives in the Grindon area of Sunderland, said: "I had to lie on a special spinal table to prevent anything happening to me. The doctors said that if I had been allowed to move, I would have been paralysed."

Mr Connor has been left with a blood clot at the top of his leg and his ankle was badly swollen.