Buxton pensioner ‘calmly accepted’ death in horror crash

Bill Dodd, 85, was driving along Waterswallows Road, near to the new Buxton Water factory, when he hit a large stone in the road.

The crash which followed had Bill and wife Karen, 49, of Boden Gate, Peak Dale, fearing for their lives.

Bill said: “The car flipped over seven times and rolled for around 50 yards.”

He said they eventually hit a wall and came to a halt.

Bill added: “The whole time the car was rolling, I thought to myself ‘how the hell are we going to get out of this one?’.

“I honestly thought I was going to die. I even said to myself ‘this is the moment when my life ends’. I was quite calm actually, in a strange way. I suppose I had calmly accepted my fate – accepted I was going to die.”

But when the car finally stopped, Bill was in for a pleasant surprise.

He said: “We both got out, walked around and we both seemed okay, all things considered. I saw some headlights approaching, so I flagged the car down and the driver called emergency services.”

Police, fire and ambulance crews attended the incident, which occurred around 8.25pm on September 11.

Bill and Karen were taken to hospital, where medics confirmed they had only sustained bruising in the crash.

Karen was allowed home that night, but Bill was kept in for a week for observations.

Bill said: “The whole time I’ve been driving, I’ve never even had an accident before.”

The couple both praised the swift response of emergency services. Karen said: “We would both like to say a huge thank you to the police officers, firemen and ambulance officers who came out after the crash. We would also like to thank John Green, who called the emergency services for us.”