Crash survivor Shirley McKay told how she thought she was going to die as an Oxford Express coach smashed through a crash barrier on the M40 and plunged down an embankment.

Mrs McKay, 55, was on a shopping trip to Oxfordshire with her friend Christine Broom, when the accident happened.

The Oxford Bus Company coach had left Terminal Four at Heathrow Airport with 12 passengers bound for Gloucester Green Bus Station, in Oxford, when it struck a recovery truck.

The truck had been called to a French beer lorry that had broken down on the hard shoulder of the northbound carriageway.

The bus hit the truck, slid along the side of the French lorry before smashing through the crash barrier and coming to rest at a 45 degree angle on the embankment.

Mrs McKay said: "I am lucky to be alive. My friend and I were sitting chatting behind the driver and suddenly I saw him put his hands to his head and I knew something was wrong.

"Then it was just hell.

"There was glass going everywhere, seats were blowing around. I was thrown to the floor and my friend thought I was dead.

"Then it all went quiet and people were climbing out of the back of the coach but I couldn't move. I was under all this debris on the floor.

"Others moved the stuff off me and helped me out. Fortunately I could walk out. We were taken to hospital and had a thorough examination by doctors. My friend had a fractured hand.

"I am very battered and bruised but otherwise all right. I am very sore and have cuts. The nurses kept pulling faces because we were all soaked through with the beer from the lorry and our clothes smelt.

"There was lots of thick green glass from the bottles of beer and we are still shaking it out of our clothes.

"I think one woman was thrown straight through the front window. "We were not wearing seatbelts. I certainly didn't notice any and the driver didn't say anything about it.

"My friend was talking to the French lorry driver in hospital and he said he saw the bus coming towards him on the hard shoulder as he was standing with the mechanic working on his lorry. He jumped over the crash barrier out of the way. He said he wouldn't be alive if he hadn't. It was really horrifying."

Mrs McKay, of Harrow, Middlesex, and Mrs Broom, of Hensby, Norfolk, were planning to stay in Oxford overnight before travelling to Witney to specialist teddy bear shop Teddy Bears Of Witney.

Mrs Broom is a toy collector and wanted to buy some more bears for her collection.