FOUR friends cheated death when the Ford Fiesta they were travelling home in after a night out in Chelmsford rolled five times as the driver swerved to avoid an animal.
George Bovingdon, 18, was driving Ryanjay Culff, 18, Ted Sims, 18, and Charlie Pitterway, 19, back to Southminster in the early hours of Saturday, December 20, after spending the evening in Missoula.
George, of Sheepcotes Lane, Southminster, was the designated driver for the Friday, but as he was approaching the turning for The Lodge, near South Woodham Ferrers, an animal rushed from the bushes and into the road at 3.50am.
The machine operator at DJC Precision Engineering managed to swerve past the animal, but as he attempted to correct his 2001 Fiesta, he sent the car into an uncontrollable spin.
George said: "I was just thinking to myself as we were rolling: 'don't die, don't die'.
"The first flip was mega, and then the rest were successively less brutal."
Three ambulances and a police car arrived at the scene within minutes after a Good Samaritan stopped to help.
Mr Bovingdon was placed on to a spinal board as a precaution but only a few cuts and bruises were collectively sustained.
George said: "As we flipped over, I smashed my head through the side window and my head hit the ground so when the paramedics arrived I was really confused.
"But once I started to regain a sense of where I was I became overwhelmed by relief that everyone was all right and that we had all survived."
