A 15-year-old student of Loreto Day School, Elliot Road, who was sitting in the front seat of the pool car on her way to school, shuddered when she saw the Tata Sumo driver jump a red signal near Fort William around 7.30am on Monday. Seconds later, she heard a loud crash as the vehicle tipped over after colliding with a Tata Nexon.

The girl fell onto a friend as the car landed on its side and the windshield shattered. She was pulled out of the front of the vehicle by policemen and passersby.

She recounted her ordeal to Metro:

I was sitting in the front seat beside the window. Another student was sitting beside me, half asleep. I had a physics exam and was revising some portions in my mind. We were at the Fort William rotary and were heading towards the Park Street-JL Nehru Road crossing.

The signal turned red, but our car kept moving. I saw that it had jumped the signal on such a busy road. I could see a blue Nexon approaching from the left (Dufferin Road). For a moment, I thought the other car would stop or slow down. But its signal had turned green and the Nexon had already picked up speed.

The next thing I heard was a loud crash. Our car toppled onto its right side, towards the driver’s side. Everything went blank for a moment. Then I realised everyone was screaming. The girl sitting beside me had fallen on the driver, and I was on top of her.

I was asking myself, “Am I dead?” Then I saw people and police personnel running towards us. The windshield had shattered completely. The girl beside me was pulled out first, and then I was pulled out. My heart was racing. I prayed that Dadu should be alive. He was still trapped inside.

Everyone inside the vehicle was shouting. Two of my friends were in the second row. One of them had suffered a cut on her hand but managed to crawl out. A Class VI girl sitting in the rear seat had blood trickling down her shirt. The back of her shirt was stained red because she had injured the back of her head.

When all of us were out of the vehicle, the police escorted us to the side of the road and asked us to wait. Most of the students were crying.

There were 10 of us in the car. I had been picked up around 7.20am from my house near Nabanna. School starts at 7.55am. I borrowed a stranger’s mobile phone and called my mother to tell her about the accident.

I have a slight pain in my chest. Blood is spattered on my bag, and that is traumatising. But we are grateful that all of us are alive.