A BOY is fighting for his life after colliding with a car as he popped out to buy cereal.

Burnley teenager Luke Mason was airlifted to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool with serious head injuries after the accident involving a blue Mazda 3 hatchback in Lyndhurst Road, at around 7.50am yesterday.

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The 13-year-old’s mum Sarah, 32, only discovered the accident when she went to look for her son and spotted him trapped under the car yards away from the family home in Mitella Street.

As the police, fire and ambulance crews drove to the scene, workers provided vital first aid.

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Firefighters from Burnley used specialist airbags to free the Blessed Trinity student, while an air ambulance landed nearby at Towneley playing fields ready to fly him and Sarah to hospital.

Dad Ben, 31, said the original plan was to take Luke to Manchester Children’s Hospital, but poor weather conditions forced a diversion to Alder Hey in Liverpool, where he drove to be by his son’s bedside yesterday morning.

He said doctors had warned him Luke ‘might not pull through’ in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

He said: “I was sitting on the couch when his mum came in screaming.

“She went to see where he was because he had been ages. When she went out she saw him under the car.

“I thought he was dead when I first saw him.”

Luke’s three sisters, Madison, seven, Mia, eight, and Lillie, five, were all kept off school yesterday, while relatives also stepped in to look after his one-year-old brother Harlot.

Mr Mason travelled to Alder Hey alongside his mother and Luke’s grandmother, Gail Hodgson shortly after the collision.

The driver, a 45-year-old man, was not injured in the accident, police said.

Specialist accident investigators closed the road off while they conducted a series of tests.

CCTV footage believed to show the accident was also taken for analysis.

No arrests have been made.

Ann Walsh, manageress at The Dainty Shop, said she spoke to Luke just minutes before the crash.

She said: “We were in the corner shop together. He said, ‘My mum said not to get anything silly’, so I told him to get some Rice Krispies.

“I came back into the shop and served some schoolchildren.

“Then they said, ‘A little boy has been knocked down’.”

Ann called 999 while Linda Robinson from The Full Monty Sandwich Bar nearby helped reassure Luke, while holding a scarf on his head injuries.

She said: “Linda was talking to him, saying loads of people were there looking after him. He was not breathing at first, she said.

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DEVASTATED: Luke’s dad Ben with Harlo and Mia

“He was starting to moan and he started to move but I was telling him not to.

“He was bleeding and his body was under the car.

“Then we could hear sirens, and the paramedics took over.”

Linda said she did not want to talk about the accident, but expressed concerns over heavy traffic in the street.

She said: “We need something doing to this road. I have been here 15 years and it’s dangerous. It’s an exceptionally busy road.”

Leader of Burnley Council, Mark Townsend, said: “Lyndhurst Road is extremely busy.

“There have been some difficulties in the past, but we need to look at it again to make sure it’s as safe as it possibly can be.”

And Cllr John Fifield, whose Bank Hill ward covers Lyndhurst Road, said: “The street has restricted parking on both sides of the road, but nobody seems to take any notice of it.

“It really needs traffic wardens to go up there. It has been complained about a few times but they won’t do anything until somebody has been hurt.

“The lines have been in for quite a number of years. In fact, I would say we are looking at least eight to ten years.”

One side of the street has a single yellow line, while the other side has double yellow lines.

Local workers, passers-by, and residents helped to stop traffic and divert buses before police arrived to seal off a section of the road.

Crew manager at Burnley Fire Station, Alan Ashworth, said: “We used a high-pressure airbag to lift the vehicle.

“The equipment we used made it quite a quick job. We just put the bags under and blew them up.”

Headteacher at Blessed Trinity Richard Varey, said: “Everyone at the school is in shock and all our thoughts and prayers are with Luke and his family.

“We are being kept informed of his progress and await further information.”

Police are now appealing for witnesses to come forward.

Anybody with information can call police on 101, quoting log number 0174 of February 11.