Two teenagers have described as a “miracle” their escape with only minor injuries after their Ford Mondeo spun off the M6 on Sunday at high speed.

Eli Niasoff, 16, from Salford, was tossed from the hatchback’s rear window, flying 20ft across three motorway lanes before landing in the central reservation. He was airlifted to hospital with suspected head injuries, but went home the same day with just a broken knee. The driver, 18-year-old Yitzchok Davies, from Prestwich, escaped without a scratch.

The incident happened on a Staffordshire stretch of the M6 as the friends drove to London. “Without warning the car just whizzed around twice, went off the road and into some trees,” said Yitzchok. A tree sliced off a rear section of the car and bounced it back onto the carriageway.

“I felt fine,” Mr Davies said, “but my relief turned to absolute terror when I saw the rear seat was completely empty. Mr Niasoff was lying under the barrier. I saw blood pouring from his face.”

Paramedics were on the crash scene in minutes, taking the teenagers to separate Staffordshire hospitals.

Mr Niasoff, who hopes to serve in the Israeli army, remembers little. “I remember being lifted up and then blacked out. Most people would have died from this, but obviously God wants me to do something — I still have to find out what it is.”