Daily Echo: Click here for more pictures, banner

HOW did she survive this?

That is the question being asked today after a toddler was trapped in the back seat of a car crushed by a 50ft tree.

As reported by the Daily Echo last night, amazingly the frightened two-year-old girl escaped unharmed from the wreckage of the people carrier after the beech tree came crashing down on top of it amid ferocious high winds yesterday.

The vehicle was being driven by Corinne Isaacs, a 44-year-old childminder, who was on the school run in Freemantle Common Road, Southampton, driving towards Spring Road when the tree came down.

The girl, described as “very distressed”, was in the back of the car pinned by her legs when a branch broke through the window.

A Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service team freed her, cutting away the 10in thick branch.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance helicopter was at the scene as a precaution.

The girl was taken by ambulance to Southampton General Hospital as a precaution but it is understood that she was not hurt.

Corinne and another toddler in the car, a girl aged one-and-a-half, escaped the vehicle before the rescue team arrived.

The childminder, of Peartree Avenue, was too distressed to talk about her ordeal last night.

But her daughter Hayley, 19, told the Daily Echo: “Mum said that she was doing the school run to pick up some of the other kids and as she was driving she heard a creaking.

“She had to smash the window to get out and reach the children and then she phoned one of her friends to come and help her.

“My mum is really shaken up and the ambulance staff think she might have whiplash.

“It’s definitely a miracle escape. Now I think everyone is just taking some time to calm down.”

The tree was removed along with another 40ft beech and it is understood that the area will be assessed by council environment officers.

Local residents said there have been fears over the trees in the area for some time.

Ambulance worker Honor Squibb, of Magnolia Road, said: “I think the council need to really look at these trees now. They’ve started cutting one of them down at the top of the Common. After today they all need to be cut down.”