Members of the public have recounted how they helped save a man’s life after a “life-threatening” driving incident earlier this week.

A driver in his 70s was hospitalised after suffering what is said to be a “heart attack” while driving on Churchill Way, near to Tesco Extra. Drivers rushed to his aid after the green Honda Accord he was driving left the road, with the vehicle ending up on its side.

Two of these people were Justin Newey and his wife Lisa, who called for an ambulance and provided CPR. Justin said that he believes anyone would do the same in the situation.

“I’m sure someone would do it for us,” he told the Advertiser. “It just shows life is too short sometimes, but that there are always nice people out there.”

“At the end of the day you’ve got to do your bit, you can’t just drive on by.”

The couple were heading from Dorset to Andover when they were behind the Honda in traffic, and Justin described what they saw to the Advertiser.

“We were on the way to my daughter’s new house in Andover, which was just five minutes around the corner, when the car in front suddenly went up the embankment,” he said.

“All the trees started going down, so we pulled over with a couple of others. Then, a woman came out of the car, saying the driver had a heart attack at the wheel.”

Fortunately, Lisa is a trained medic, who works as a senior oncology nurse at Dorchester Hospital. She went with the wife of the driver to start CPR on the man in the car, while Justin called for an ambulance.

“She went to have a look while I called 999,” he said. “An ambulance went past, but unfortunately it wasn’t ours.

“Meanwhile, my wife was doing CPR on the man in the car, while his wife was doing mouth to mouth, but he wasn’t responding at all.

“It was very sad, but I was keeping it all together for my wife.”

Other members of the public were also helping, including Kev Dyer, who helped direct medics to the scene of the incident, and carried some of their kit. Medics quickly arrived at the car.

“A paramedic arrived and he said we needed to get the driver out, so I helped him carry the man to the side of the road. I hurt my back doing it but never mind!”

Lisa carried on CPR, before paramedics took over. The road was closed as police, fire and ambulance vehicles arrived on the scene, while the air ambulance landed in a nearby open space. As the emergency response increased, Justin and Lisa left the scene to allow the medics to do their work.

“Lisa was very upset when we left, and we felt a bit numb after we realised what happened,” Justin said.

After being treated on the scene, the driver was taken to Basingstoke Hospital by ambulance in “life-threatening” condition, with the road reopening at around 12:40pm.

However, Justin and Lisa kept up to date on the man’s condition, and called the hospital to check in on Tuesday.

“We found out that he had made it, which is fantastic news,” Justin said. “We are just glad he was ok, and that helped us feel better. It was a perfect result.”