A Fife woman involved in a horrific three-vehicle crash on Boxing Day has spoken of her amazement that no-one was killed or more seriously injured.
Debbie Kemp, 47, from Glenrothes, admits she is lucky to be alive along with her partner Neil Westland, 54, and her two dogs Daisy and Ella after their BMW X3 was involved in a pile-up on the A911 Glenrothes to Leven road at around 11.30am on Saturday morning.
Remarkably, the couple only got the car two days before Christmas, and police are adamant they would not be here to tell the tale had they been in their old Mini Cooper at the time of the crash.
A number of Good Samaritans stopped to assist at the scene of the accident, and Debbie has since been able to personally thank two individuals in particular after tracking them down on social media.
Debbie, a creative director at a local graphic design company, broke her hand in three places and suffered significant bruising, as did Neil, while a young girl in one of the other vehicles involved was also taken to hospital for treatment to an eye wound.
Miraculously though, everyone involved – including Debbie’s two beloved dogs who were in the boot of her vehicle – survived.
“It was terrifying – I never want to experience anything like that in my life again,” she said.
“We hit the first car and then ploughed into the second car head on, so we had a double whammy.
“We have a Mini Cooper and the police said if we had been in the Mini we wouldn’t be here right now.
“We only got the car the other day but it definitely saved our lives, 100%.
“It all happened so fast and just as we were about to hit the first car, you didn’t know how bad it was going to be but you knew it was going to be bad.
“Neil put his arm across my chest to try and hold me back on impact, but I just remember coming to a standstill and screaming for my dogs.
“I couldn’t see because of the smoke from the airbags and I was just hysterical about the girls (dogs), but Neil got them out and had to tell me a few times that they were fine.”
Debbie had special praise for Craig Skinner and Lana Bell Wilson, who were first on the scene and were tracked down afterwards via Facebook.
“I just felt I needed to speak to them because they were amazing,” she added.
“The girl came over and was just an angel. She helped with the dogs, held my hand and was just amazingly gentle and kind, while the guy was just so calm and made sure everybody was okay.
“He was just so genuine and kind, and I just love the fact that there are people out there willing to go out of their way to help.
“Even the messages we’ve been getting since the accident, it’s just been quite overwhelming.”
The A911 had to be closed in both directions near the Milton of Balgonie junction for around 90 minutes while emergency services carried out their work.
