AN OFF-DUTY police officer feared the worst when a car somersaulted down a hillside, crashing onto the golf course where his team was playing.
Andy Woodhead, golf captain for East Riding Union, ran to the rescue when he saw the hatchback rolling down the hillside onto the fairway after careering off a 60mph road.
The car, with three adults and two children inside, was smashed on three sides as it somersaulted, scattering contents, including a pram.
As it came to rest on its wheels in the middle of the fairway, Mr Woodhead sprinted to the wrecked Rover 45 to wrench open a door and pull the occupants clear.
Mr Woodhead, a Humberside Police inspector, said: "As I was looking down the fairway, the car came across the horizon, somersaulting.
"It was scary to watch. It finished up about 150 yards from the road.
"When I looked at it, I thought 'No one is going to survive that'.
"It was absolutely cubed. It was smashed in on three sides. It had done three somersaults down the hill."
Emergency services, including the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, were scrambled to the scene at a windswept Baildon Moor in West Yorkshire.
Mr Woodhead found two men aged 21 and 35, a woman and two babies aged about 12 months in the battered vehicle.
He said: "One of the adults had got out, we got another door open and got everyone else out.
"I just put a foot against the side of the car to prise it open.
"I was more concerned about turning the engine off, the engine was still running.
"It had started to smoke a bit so you have the possibility of an engine fire."
Mr Woodhead said the emergency services were quickly at the scene on the bleak moor, near Bradford.
He said: "The air ambulance arrived within minutes.
"They were all traumatised but there was not a scratch on any of them.
"The only physical injury was the lady had a big bump to her forehead."
Mr Woodhead was amazed the occupants were not seriously hurt.
He said: "It came off the road almost parallel with us and was rolling down in front of us.
"It's amazing how much the cube of a car protects people.
"When you look at what had been thrown out of the windows, debris was scattered 150 yards down the hill.
"It was a hatchback, the glass was smashed and every time they rolled, something else come out in the air, including a pram."
Mr Woodhead, who has attended road crashes as a police officer, said: "I have seen crashes but I have never seen something roll down a hill like that."
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Although the helicopter was there, no one needed to be airlifted for treatment.
"Looking at the state of the car, those involved have been a very lucky not to have been badly injured."
The accident happened shortly after 6pm on Sunday, September 1, as Mr Woodhead was watching one of his players, Lewis Blanchard, finish his round in a match the East Riding lost to Bradford Union.
Mr Woodhead said: "You couldn't continue playing as the air ambulance was on the fairway.
"The important thing is no one was badly injured."
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