A husband and wife who were smashed off the road in a terrifying crash have tracked down the heroic member of the public who rushed to their aid.

Sarah Leyfield, 56, was driving on the A420 just north of Watchfield with her husband Shaun as a passenger when the pair were involved in a head-on crash with another car at 50mph - sending their Land Rover Discovery TD5 airborne.

"All I can remember is this line of traffic coming towards us," Sarah, from Royal Wootton Bassett, recalled.

"And then all of a sudden there was this impact which sent the car flying into the air, somehow we managed to avoid rolling over and hitting any other cars before we stopped moving."

Shaun added: "I was nodding off in the passenger seat when all of a sudden I could hear screaming. It happened in seconds."

At the same time Tara Barnes, 34, from Wichelstowe, had just finished work and was a passenger in her friend and colleague's car just behind the high-speed wreck.

The Army Cadets first aid instructor and community college isolation room manager sprang into action.

She said: "My first thought was disbelief, I turned to my friend and was like 'did that really just happen' it was so quick, we'd seen the car spinning towards us and pulled over quickly," she said. 

"But then my instinct kicked in and I just ran towards them."

Tara reached Sarah, who was complaining of head pain, and tried to open the driver-side door but couldn't. She jumped in the back and isolated the base of her neck by holding it still, which she did for an hour while waiting for emergency services to turn up and for Sarah to be freed from the car. 

Sarah and Shaun were taken to hospital and - miraculously - she managed to to escape with concussion and minor injuries. 

"We were very lucky," said Sarah. "We needed to pick up something heavy so we decided to drive the TD5 that day. We'd only had that car a month and had we been in our smaller car, or if it was someone else things would've been different.

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Tara, left, is thanked by Sarah over the Easter weekend

The crash happened on January 6 at around 3.45pm. Afterwards the couple wanted to track down Tara to thank her for what she did and after sharing their story on the Swindon Community Notice Board, they managed to track her down.

"She was a member of the public and she didn't hesistate to help," Sarah said. 

"I can't thank her enough for what she did. She was amazing and kept me calm throughout what was quite a terrifying time."

Meeting for the first time since the accident over the Easter weekend, Sarah was able to present Tara with some flowers, chocolates and a bottle of wine to show her appreciation. 

"It was just nice to know they were okay," Tara said. "I often wondered what had happened, so it was great when they got in touch."