Mother dragged girl off road after she fell from ambulance

THE father of a teenage British girl who fell from the back of an ambulance on to a motorway yesterday told how his horrified wife helped drag her unconscious daughter out of the path of oncoming traffic.

Natalie Kathryn Dibden, 16, of Orchard Close, Charfield, Gloucestershire, suffered fatal injuries when she fell from the vehicle on the M5 in the early hours of Sunday morning. She died in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Natalie’s father Steve yesterday described how his wife Sarah, who was following the ambulance in her car, helped pull her daughter off the road on to the hard shoulder.

“My wife saw my daughter come out of the ambulance and on to the road.

She pulled the car on to the hard shoulder to avoid hitting her.

“My daughter came to a stop as my wife came to a stop almost right by the side of her.

With the help of one member of the ambulance crew she pulled her off the near side lane to the hard shoulder.”

Mr Dibden said his wife, a qualified first-aider, gave Natalie heart massage in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

He added his wife was too traumatised by what she had witnessed to attend yesterday’s press conference with her husband and sons Gavin, 19 and Barry 18.

Mr Dibden said: “We are going through something that is terrible. My wife has seen everything that’s gone on, so we only have a partial thought of what she’s feeling.”

He praised his wife for doing everything she could to save Natalie’s life.

Natalie had been picked up by the ambulance in Dursley following a 999 call, but her father said her injuries were not “life threatening in any way, shape or form”.

Detectives are looking at the possibility Natalie’s drinks had been spiked with a date-rape drug.

Natalie had spent the evening with friends at the Warehouse nightclub in Dursley.

It is understood she suddenly became confused. Natalie reportedly opened the ambulance doors in this state.