A CELEBRITY television chef said she could have died in a crash when her car overturned on an icy rural road, the County Gazette reported in December 2010.

Tamasin Day-Lewis, who is also an acclaimed writer, was returning home to her Quantock Hills village when her vehicle skidded and flipped over onto its roof.

Ms Day-Lewis, 57, had to kick her door open and crawl out of her upside down vehicle, which ended up on the grass verge just outside Kingston St Mary.

She criticised Somerset County Council, claiming the road was dangerous as it had not been salted before the accident.

“I could have died,” said Ms Day-Lewis, who suffered a painful back.

“The passenger side was completely crushed – my daughter was sitting there just 20 minutes earlier.

“I was only doing 30mph on a straight stretch of road and tried to steer away from another car coming towards me.

“I swerved and swung it back up the verge, up the bank and it flipped – I thought: ‘This is it’.”

Ms Day-Lewis, the daughter of the late poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and sister of actor Daniel Day-Lewis, said the road was covered in black ice and other people who stopped to help, including police officers, slipped on the treacherous surface.

“The county council says parish councils should collect grit and hand grit their roads, but this is a major route into Taunton and should be gritted,” she added.

A county council spokeswoman told the County Gazette: “That road is not a priority route, but would be salted after other major routes and when resources permit.

“It was salted at some stage on (the day of the accident).

“There are alternative routes between Taunton and Bridgwater on the priority salting network.”