Crashed car appears from nowhere in front of vehicle on dark unlit motorway

A BMW driver thought he was ‘going to die’ when he ploughed into an abandoned car on an unlit stretch of motorway.

David Lingard, 53, said the vehicle – which was turned sideways following an earlier collision – ‘appeared out of nowhere’ on a pitch black section of the M61 in Lancashire on December 15.

His dashcam shows him moving into the far right lane to pass two braking motorists as torrential rain hammers down.

All of a sudden the deserted vehicle comes into shot leaving Mr Lingard no option but to smash straight into it at 65mph.

He suffered serious but fortunately non-life threatening injuries and managed to escape the wreckage to try and warn other drivers and call his partner Janice Kitchen to tell her he loved her.

Mr Lingard said: ‘As the crash happened I thought “I’m going to die, I’m not going to make it out of this” and then the airbags went off in my face.

‘Then I remember the car spinning around and being overcome with adrenaline.’

He added: ‘My whole body was in agony. The pain was unbelievable and I couldn’t breathe. I thought I had damaged my organs and was going to die.

‘I just wanted to tell Janice I loved her and that I love my kids and the dog.’

Mr Lingard is now using his ‘lucky escape’ to campaign for better lighting on motorways, which, he says, would have prevented the crash.

He added: ‘Had there been lights on that road I would have seen the stationary vehicle and begun braking much earlier.

‘There may have been a minor collision but it certainly would not have been anywhere near as bad as it was. I was incredibly lucky and so were the other road users that it wasn’t worse.

‘Hopefully what happened can shine a light on the issue – some stretches of motorway where accidents repeatedly happen need more lighting.’

Highways England said safety was its ‘top priority’, adding that it would continue to monitor night-time collisions and ‘assess the impact lighting would have on safety’, the BBC reported.

A spokesman said they ‘target safety improvements where they are most needed’.