P-plate driver crashes car into wall, flips onto sand at busy Sydney beach

Two people have had a “lucky escape” after a car flipped onto its roof at a busy Sydney beach.

A 33-year-old red P-plate driver and her 55-year-old passenger crawled from the wreckage of their car at Balmoral Beach in Mosman at 1.15pm on Monday.

A NSW Police spokesman said an off-duty paramedic was at the beach at the time and was able to provide assistance to the pair.

“It was a lucky escape … she has a scratch on her head,” the spokesman said.

“But otherwise fine, and no one was hurt at the scene.”

The driver of the Kia Seltos was practising parking on The Esplanade in Mosman and accidentally hit the accelerator rather than the brake.

“She was breath-tested and it was negative,” the police spokesman said.

Witness Terry Thelwell told ABC Radio Sydney he and his wife were only about two-metres away from where the car landed.

“My wife and I were sitting having lunch on a chair down below on the beach and heard this almighty roar and looked to our left and heard screaming,” he said.

“The car … came hurtling across the grass on the promenade at Balmoral, I don’t know how she didn’t hit anybody,”

He said the beach was packed and he was amazed no one had been seriously injured.

“Luckily a family had just moved from basically where the car had landed about ten minutes earlier, a family with two young kids, so it could have been much worse,” Mr Thelwell said.

“To come across that grass verge and the promenade there and not hit anyone it’s amazing.”

“Myself and a couple of other blokes helped free the lady from the car, she had a slight cut on her forehead.”

A crane was brought in to remove the upturned vehicle.