A MOTHER who passed out while driving on the A40 dual carriageway has hailed her "little hero" 12-year-old son for saving their lives by steering their car to a halt.

Paramedics later discovered that low blood pressure made 37-year-old Nicola Crump faint at the wheel of her MG HS between Monmouth and Ross on their way to a Birmingham Christmas market.

Luckily, Zac had the coolness and presence of mind to grab the steering wheel and manouvere the car from 60mph to a halt on the central reservation, where although it sustained damage, it wasn't written off.

He only joined the trip from their Ebbw Vale home at the last minute when one of Nicola's friends pulled out.

And his mum told BBC Radio Wales: "All I remember is waking up on the other side of the road not knowing what happened.

'We left the house at 5.30am and everything was fine, and didn’t have breakfast because we were planning on getting a McDonald's.

"But we got as far as Ross-on-Wye when I started to get really hot and pulled over.

"I wound my window down and managed to take my coat off, but I could feel myself going, I was in buckets of sweat. I said to Zac 'I'm going, I don't feel well.'

‘There was no proper hard shoulder, just a small verge – so more than half of my car remained in the live lane.

”The last thing I remember is a lorry going past. Then I fainted before I’d managed to put the car into park mode.”

Passing out her foot pressed the accelerator and the car accelerated to 60mph along the road.

"There was nothing to stop it," said the support worker. "The next thing I remember is coming round and seeing we were on the central reservation."

Zac had managed to steer the car to slow it down on the bumpy grass before turning the engine switch off, saving both their lives, before dialling 999.

"I was really scared but I knew I had to do something," said the youngster, whose mum was unconscious for some eight minutes.

"When I was on the phone to 999, I saw her belly moving so I knew she was breathing."

Nicola said that after coming round: "He was just keeping me so calm. He was saying 'it's OK mum, don't panic, you're fine'."

And the thankful mother-of-two, who has been referred to a cardiologist, said: "He literally saved our lives and who knows who else's. Thank God he thought so quickly and was so brave because we could've died. You don't prepare for anything like that!

"Zac seemed so calm. He turned the engine off because there’s a stop-start button and when the police needed the satnav he turned it back on.

"It was such quick thinking, it’s incredible the way he stayed so calm... He wasn't panicking, he was just unbelievable.

"I was cwtching him and he was telling me not to worry. He really is my little hero."

West Mercia Police have invited Zac to their headquarters to present him with a bravery certificate.