Brothers' amazing escape from seven-foot puddle

Two brothers had an amazing escape when they drove into a 7ft hole that opened up in the middle of a main road.

Carl and Chris Nedic were flung forward as a front wheel of their new £24,000 pick-up truck crashed through the Tarmac, bringing the white Nissan Navara to a horrifying halt.

Both leaped from the vehicle only for the remains of the road surface to collapse minutes later, pitching the four-wheel drive nose first into the ground on the A464 at Boningale near Albrighton last night.

Click on the image on the right to see more pictures from the scene.

It was then swallowed up by the hole, which was 10ft wide and 8ft long.

The original hole had been hidden from the view of motorists by muddy water up to a foot deep, which swirled across the carriageway after a major trunk main burst under the road.

Chris, aged 23, who works with his 25-year-old brother in the family mobile homes business, said afterwards: "I thought I was a gonner. We are both lucky to be alive."

He escaped with cuts and bruises but his brother was taken to Princess Royal Hospital in Telford for treatment to back and leg injuries and was recovering at the family's home in Kingswood, near Albrighton, today.

His father, also called Chris and aged 54, rushed from the family home in Kingswood after being alerted to the accident and was hurt when he fell into the hole trying to release the stranded truck.

The road was expected to be closed for the rest of today and into tomorrow.