A HORRIFIED Ulverston head teacher watched an out-of control car smash through the railings of his school and then plough on through the playground and sports field, reports Ruth Lythe.

Paul Brown, head teacher of St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Springfield Road, had just finished taking a group of prospective parents around the school at around 11am on Tuesday during the half-term break.

Returning to his office, he was astonished to see a car travelling along Springfield Road hit his own vehicle, which was parked outside the school. The runaway car, a Rover 75, then came crashing through the school railings.

Cumbria Police said that the driver, a 57-year-old man from Swarthmoor, had blacked out and lost control of his vehicle, which then swerved off the road.

Mr Brown said the Rover sped between two trees directly in front of the school. Swerving to the left, the vehicle just missed the school buildings before ploughing across the playground and football pitch - which on any other midweek morning would have been full of children.

During its 250-metre-long journey, the Rover narrowly missed a pair of goal posts before crashing into a fence at the end of the playing field and hitting a dry stone wall beyond it at low speed.

Mr Brown, 32, said: "I was shocked, I couldn't believe it. It was like a film. I could see that the driver was slumped and had lost control."

Fortunately, the driver of the Rover suffered only minor injuries.

Mr Brown added: "It would have been play time at 11am on any other Tuesday. If that had been the case we would have been in real trouble. We had a lucky escape. You don't expect a car travelling at 50 or 60mph to come crashing through the fence."

However, Mr Brown said that his immediate fear had been for the driver. As soon as he saw the Rover enter the school grounds though the fence the quick-thinking head teacher called an ambulance.

He said: "I rang the ambulance first of all and by the time I got to the car at the end of the field there were already two or three people with him."

Paramedics arrived on the scene "in a matter of minutes" and took the motorist to Furness General Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries and was described as being in a comfortable condition.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said further inquiries into the causes of the incident were being carried out.