A YOUNG girl and elderly man avoided serious injury after their car crashed into the M5 emergency barrier on July 21.

The girl suffered from a superficial face injury and the man came away unscathed after the vehicle smashed into the central reservation.

Emergency services were called at 10.38am and found the pair outside of the crumpled car, when they arrived.

A concrete lamp column was damaged in the crash and had to be removed, leading to the closure of one of the lanes between junctions eight and seven.

The emergency barrier also had to be repaired and commuters encountered delays of up to 30 minutes.

Greg Ambler, a Midlands Air Ambulance critical care paramedic, said: "When we arrived they were feeling frightened and surprised, as anyone would. The young passenger was in good spirits and was delivering high fives.

"It was one of those incidents that could have turned particularly nasty but fortunately that wasn't the case this time.

"Their car had hit the reservation at significant speed. The bonnet was mashed up and the airbags had been deployed."

Mr Ambler said it was not rare for people to walk away unharmed from these types of crashes due to car safety mechanisms.

Niamh Conway, an eyewitness, said: "We saw it crash into the barriers that separate the two motorways.

"We were in the right hand lane on the other side and when the car hit the barrier, loads of large pieces of debris hit our car and their vehicle span into the middle lane.

"The airbags were all out and their car was really smashed up. I'm not sure how it happened but it was really scary to witness."

Two paramedic cars and one air ambulance car attended the scene but no one was taken to hospital.

The air crew travelled by car because the accident happened nearby their base.