Driver forgets to put handbrake on.. and watches helplessly as his car rolls 250ft down a hill

The hapless driver stepped out of his Land Rover Freelander after parking at a beauty spot but forgot to put the handbrake on.

Seconds later, the vehicle rolled forward and coasted a whopping 250ft (76m) down a steep bank at Holne on Dartmoor in Devon.

Handbrake forgotten: The runaway car crashes through scrub and comes to rest in a ditch

The owner watched as the four-wheel drive bounced and bobbed its way through a collision course of rocks and scrub, coming to rest in a ditch.

His silver off-road jeep seemed to have escaped largely undamaged - until it began to sink in a muddy bog.

Eyewitness Nicholas Clegg, 52, an accountant from Yeovil, Somerset, saw the incident during a day trip with his son.

He said: 'The driver had left the handbrake off and the car had just rolled all the way down.

Off-road: Rescuers try to free the car

'I can't believe it managed to stay on all four wheels. At one point, the slope gets so steep that it's a miracle it didn't turn over.

'The only way would be to winch it all the way back up but it would require at least 200ft of cable and probably a helicopter.

'They would have had one heck of a job towing it out. It was a very wet valley and the car was well and truly stuck.

'The driver was devastated because it is a new car and although there was no superficial damage I dread to think what it's like underneath.

'It's every driver's nightmare. It's a good job it was an off-road vehicle otherwise it would have been completely written off.' 

Rescuers were attempting to free the car.