TWO brothers who went to the aid of their injured mother in a car crash have been praised for their bravery by paramedics.

Jack and Henry Allport, from Blythe Place, Bicester, remained "cool, calm and collected" after the car they were travelling in hit black ice and left the road.

The Boxing Day accident, on the B4030 between Bicester and Upper Heyford, left their mother Petrina, who was driving the family's Fiat Multipla, with spinal whiplash injuries.

Back seat passenger Jack, 14, freed Henry, 11, from the front of the car and the pair used their mother's phone to dial 999 before flagging down passing motorists.

The brothers were awarded certificates by South Central Ambulance Service on Monday at Burford School, where they are both pupils. Paramedic Aubrey Bell, who treated Mrs Allport at the scene, described the conditions on the day of the accident as "like an ice rink".

He said: "The boys were very cool, calm and collected. It's distressing seeing your mum in an accident but they were very helpful and reassured her.

"They are a fairly young age but they were mature beyond their years that day."

Mrs Allport said they were driving out to the Cotswolds when the accident happened.

She said: "I told Jack and Henry the tyre pressure felt wrong and as soon as I said that we went into a slow spin - I can't have been doing more than 30mph.

"I just said to them, 'it's black ice' and then we hit the hedge."

Mrs Allport was treated in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and released the same day.

She said: "I'm very proud of what they did, they were fantastic. When I got the letter from the ambulance service telling me they wanted to give them certificates I just couldn't stop crying."

Jack said: "When we landed in the ditch mum screamed but I thought what is the point in shouting and screaming? You just have to keep everything calm and under control because none of us was badly hurt."

Henry said: "I was quite scared and nervous when I was trapped, but Jack helped me get out and then we could help my mum. It was frightening when we didn't know what might happen to her, so it was a relief when the ambulance came."