Man tells of crash horror

The unsung hero, who did not want to be named, bravely tried in vain to put out the flames which had started in the car moments after it crashed on Longdale Lane on Sunday night.

Both men, named locally as Adam Burton and Craig Dowhan, died at the scene when the silver Rover 218 they were travelling in with another man went off the road and collided with a telegraph pole.

A third man sustained non life-threatening injuries and was taken to Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, but has since been discharged.

The still shaken man said: “I was running back and forth from my house getting water. It was horrific.”

“The crash was a horrible sound - like a train hitting a mountain. I said to my wife, ‘that is a bad one.’

“I ran out the house with my slippers on and saw this poor kid in the passenger seat and thought, ‘he is still alive.’

“There were two small flames in the back, so I ran back into the house to find a bucket and told my wife to find a fire extinguisher.

“This is a quiet residential road, it looked like a car bomb had gone off.”

“There was wreckage in people’s gardens - it was absolutely terrible.”

Another resident on Longdale Lane described how he had rushed out on to street after hearing a thunderous crash sound.

“I was upstairs and all the windows were showing tremendous lights and flashes,” he said.

“I went down to investigate and one of the neighbours came running up and said there had been a very serious accident.

“It was terrible - this is about the third time there has been an accident in the same spot. People just seem to go down here at a tremendous speed.”

Police have since released three men, aged 20, 21, and 28, on bail after they were arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

If you witnessed the collision or saw a silver Rover 218 in the area, believed to have been travelling south along Nottingham Road from Mansfield towards Ravenshead before to the incident, please Nottinghamshire Police on 101.