A TEENAGER was left with serious spinal injuries after being thrown through the rear window of a car as it crashed in the early hours of today.

Jamie Lee Holmes, 17, had been at the cinema complex at Pilsworth with friend Gordon Gilchrist, 19, who was driving the Ford Escort XR3.

They decided to drive to Burnley, but Jamie's step-father, John Roberts, said a front tyre blew as they were turning a corner and the vehicle crashed into a wall in Manchester Road, Clowbridge, at 2.05am.

Jamie, of Thirlmere Way, Crawshawbooth, was in the back seat and not wearing a seat belt.

He was thrown out of the car and broke his 12th vertebrae, several ribs, his collar bone, He also suffered a collapsed lung and damaged his kidneys.

He was expected to be transferred today from the intensive care unit at Burnley General Hospital to a specialist spinal injuries unit at Wakefield or Southport.

Mr Roberts and Jamie's mother, Jane, have been at his bedside all night while doctors carried out scans, assessed his injuries and transfused several pints of blood. Mr Roberts said: "My wife telephoned Jamie's grandparents to tell them of the accident, only to be told her mother had died in Bury General Hospital at 12.15am today."

Jamie works for local firm Rossendale Vulcanising.

Gordon's mum, Marilyn, of Church Street, Crawshawbooth, said her son had been very shaken by the accident.

Gordon, a lorry driver for Barnes Transport, Rawtenstall, hoped to visit Jamie today.

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