AN elderly woman whose brakes appeared to fail as she drove herself to a hair appointment avoided a head-on collision with oncoming cars by aiming for a lamp- post.

The quick-thinking driver ploughed into the concrete post on Clarence Road, Malvern, with such force it snapped in half.

She then clambered on to the roof of her Volkswagen Golf, which was wedged between a parked car and a brick wall outside The Cavalry Arms.

Annette Hawker, of Annette's Hairdressers on Clarence Road, said she started to worry when the woman, who has not been named but was booked in for her regular shampoo and set, was unusually late.

"I was wondering where she had got to when I saw smoke billowing out of a car across the road," she said. "I rushed outside and a man had had to help her down from the roof.

"She told me afterwards she had veered off the road because her brakes failed and she hadn't wanted to hit another car.

"Needless to say she didn't manage to get her hair done."

Fire crews from Malvern rushed to the scene at 11am on Tuesday to put out a fire in the engine, and move the car away from live wires sticking out of the lamp-post.

"The electric supply had to be isolated as a cable had become trapped at the bottom of the post," a spokesman for Worcestershire County Council confirmed.

"It was severely damaged as the foundations weren't very good, causing it to topple over.

"We have replaced it with a galvanised steel post which will just bend like a banana if it is hit."

Vicki Davies of Worcester police today said she could not confirm the cause of the collision. She added there was no police investigation.