A MOTHER who faced a tragic choice between saving her teenage son or young daughter after a car crash has spoken of her torment.

Driver Rachel Edwards managed to escape through an open window of her car after it hit a pothole and plunged into a dyke in Midville near Boston in Lincolnshire last month.

But the 39-year-old, who was six months pregnant at the time, then faced a heartbreaking decision - which of her children to save.

Both son Jack Brennan, 16, and daughter Isabella, two, were trapped in the sinking vehicle.

Mrs Edwards, who lives in Dunmow, gave her dramatic account of what happened to the Derby Telegraph.

She said: “At first I didn’t try to get out because I was in shock. But my window had been open so I managed to get out and up to the surface.

“But Jack’s window hadn’t been open - I told him to close it before we went into the dyke because Isabella was sitting behind him in her car seat and she was asleep.”

She added: “I saw the bottom of the car so I shoved my hands under and I felt her car seat. I pulled her out and I knew she was still alive.

“I tried to go back for Jack but I knew if I let go of Isabella then I wouldn’t be able to get her back.

“I was just screaming and screaming. (Jack’s friends) Tom and Dave had managed to scramble out and they went running off to the nearest house to get help.’’

Mrs Edwards took her daughter to safety. But when she tried to go back and save her son, she claims she was held back by paramedics who arrived at the scene.

A police officer pulled the teenager from the Citroen Xsara estate but he was certified dead in hospital.

More than 300 people attended his funeral in Dunmow last Friday.

Lincolnshire Police are carrying out an inquiry into the crash.

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