Girl, 8, Almost Decapitated After 60ft Tree Branch Crushes Car

An eight-year-old girl has miraculously survived after a 60ft-long tree branch fell on a car and nearly decapitated her.

Faith Molineux will have facial reconstructive surgery this week after the freak accident left her with a shattered left eye socket and cheek.

Alisha Vivien, 18, was driving her niece Faith to walk her dogs when the giant branch snapped and crushed the Peugeot 107 last Monday.

The driver and her boyfriend, Nathaniel Hailey, 18, only suffered minor bruising but Faith was trapped inside.

Officers said if Faith had been an adult she would “almost certainly have been decapitated”.

The vehicle, which was travelling on Rugeley Road, Cannock, Staffordshire, was left completely flattened.

An air ambulance flew Faith to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where medics said she had also suffered multiple fractures to her jaw and a broken left arm.

Her dad, Daniel, 40, and 30-year-old mum Natalie of Rugeley, want to know why such a large overhanging tree hadn’t been cut back.

Speaking from Birmingham Children’s Hospital on Sunday, technical support worker Daniel said: “Faith was actually saved by how long the branch was.

"Her saving grace is that it was so big it actually took down trees on the other side of the road, which stopped it completely crushing Faith.

The branch crushed the car (SWNS)

"She was in the back left of the car, and a branch of the branch smashed right in through that window inches above her head.

"Officers at the scene told me if she was an adult, or just a little bit taller, she would have been decapitated.

"A passerby, Pauline Standley, who heard the sound of the tree falling and drove to help, really saved her life.”

Faith’s auntie, Alisha, told of the moment she turned to see her niece knocked unconscious "with blood pouring down her face”.

“I just saw the branch snap off and I knew there was nothing I could do. Nathaniel was screaming ‘Alish, Alish,’ but I knew it was too late.

“There was a branch that had smashed through the window just inches above her head and she was unconscious, it was horrific.

"An unmarked police car got there within five minutes, then another police car then paramedics, the fire service and the air ambulance.

"I don’t know if they cut Faith out, but they managed to get her out after about 20 minutes and got her in the air ambulance.

"It’s just been horrific ever since. Whenever I’m alone, or at night when it’s dark, I just keep having flashbacks of looking back and seeing Faith with blood pouring down her face.

"Nathaniel’s T-shirt was cut in two by a branch — it missed cutting through him by millimeters. I was just cut up by all the smashed glass.

"I’ve had whiplash and Nathaniel’s had a really nasty bruise, but other than that we’re fine. It’s just Faith, bless her, it was just awful."

(Credit: SWNS)