A beautician who survived the horror A40 crash has spoken for the first time from her hospital bed to describe her ‘miracle escape’ and how she begged the driver to slow down.
Zamarod Arif said she was fully conscious as the car somersaulted on to railway tracks after careering off the road next to Park Royal railway station at up to 100mph in the early hours of Monday morning.
The 26-year-old – who was the front seat passenger and wore a seat belt – said ‘it was like being in a Tsunami’ as she was thrown around the inside of the Range Rover car.
She revealed one of the first people on the scene having seen the mangled wreck of the 4×4 told her to say a prayer as he didn’t think she would survive.
Her best friend, mother-of-one Yagmur Ozden, 33, died in the crash that was caught on an Uber driver’s dashcam as his car charged at the Tesla Centre. She was ejected from the rear passenger seat as the speeding vehicle slammed through two barriers and into the Tesla charging station.
Zamarod said the driver Rida Al Mousawi was also thrown from the car and ended up critically injured on the platform of Park Royal station.
She told MailOnline that neither Yagmur or Rida were wearing seatbelts. ‘I told them both to put on their seatbelts, but they did not listen,’ she said.
‘Yag was my best friend and my heart is just breaking. I know I am lucky to be alive and I hope Rida makes a full recovery. I am so sad, my heart is breaking.’
‘It is a miracle that I am here. I was called a miracle baby when I was born and this is the second miracle. God has saved me and given me another chance.’
Describing the crash, she said: ‘I was in the car conscious all the time. I felt every tumble. I felt everything. I had watched the Tsunami movie (The Impossible) three days before with Yagmur and there was a girl being hit by the Tsunami. Water was hitting her left right and centre and it felt like that. It was the worst experience of my life.
‘I am so lucky to be alive.’
And reliving the moments before the high-speed crash, Zamarod said she and Yagmur had begged the driver to slow down: ‘Rida liked to drive fast and he likes to tease people when they are in the car. We were going so fast as soon as we left the Wish Lounge.
‘When we got on the A40 I told Rida to slow down. We stopped at a red light by the BP garage and then Rida started going fast. He just kept going faster.
Zamarod Arif, 26, pictured, is the surviving passenger of the fatal Range Rover A40 car crash which landed on the railway tracks of Park Royal railway station in the early hours of Monday morning
The woman killed in the A40 horror crash has been named as 33-year Yagmur Ozden (pictured), was ‘ejected’ from the back seat of the Range Rover when it smashed through the barriers of the Tesla Centre next to Park Royal railway station
Pictured is the Land Rover seen on the track as in the background benches can be seen at Park Royal station
The mangled Range Rover on the tracks of Park Royal station on Monday before it was removed, pictured left, Right, rescuers stand near the crash site where a Range Rover veered off the road onto the Piccadilly Line train track after colliding with Tesla, at Park Royal Station in West London
‘I told him to slow down and touched his arm. Yagmur was also telling him to slow down. She had a previous bad experience and didn’t like going fast. We were both afraid.
‘I looked over at Rida and touched his arm to say slow down. He looked me in the eye and said it will be cool.
‘Just then Yag shouted out that there was something in the road. I don’t know what it was, a cat, or another animal. Rida went to the side, and once that happened we just took off.’
Zamarod suffered a broken leg and broken arm in the crash but otherwise no life-changing injuries.
She agreed to be interviewed while lying in bed wearing a black and white hospital gown and had a clear recall of all the events before and leading up to the crash.
Zamarod and Yagmur were close friends for several years from working within the beauty business, and both knew Rida Al Mousawi having met him previously at many social occasions, and at the Wish Lounge which is popular with Iraqis.
On Sunday the two women were due to attend a birthday party but Yagmur’s car had a flat battery. Zamraod said she called several people to come and help and Rida said he would meet up with them later.
After attending the friend’s party the two women met Rida at the Wish Lounge and he agreed to drive them to his home in Greenford and pick up charging cables.
She said he had also offered to drive back to Yagmur’s flat and help her start the car.
‘I was conscious the whole time. When the train ended up on the track I looked across and could see Rida lying on the platform,’ she explained. ‘He was alive and breathing heavily, I called out to him, and he turned. It was awful. He was not speaking.
‘I was in a lot of pain and just waited for the ambulance people to come. Someone came to the car and said I should say a prayer as I was not going to survive. I could not move as my leg was trapped.
‘I could not see Yagmur in the car, but one of the emergency people said she was okay. They were just trying to shield me as I knew she did not make it.
‘Even now in hospital I can still see us flying through the air.’
Zamarod revealed a twist of fate put them in the same car with 24-year-old Rida, a jewellery store manager from Greenford, West London. He remains in a coma at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington.
She said: ‘Yag and I were going to a birthday party on Sunday night but her car had a flat battery. I called round lots of people and Rida was one of those who answered.
The driver, Rida Al Mousawi (pictured), 24, from Greenford, West London, remains in a critical condition in hospital after his £120,000 car flew off the road and burst into flames on Monday, killing a mother-of-one
A crane truck lifts the Tesla car out of the crash scene after a Range Rover collided with it near Park Royal Station in London
This picture shows where the impact areas were before the Land Rover ended up on the tracks after the horror crash on Monday morning
‘He was going to the Wish Lounge, but we did not want to go and went to the party. We ended up at the Wish Lounge after the party about 3.30am and were in there about five or ten minutes.
‘Rida said he would borrow some jump cables from his brother and take us back to Yag’s home. That is why we went in the car. He had been there most of the night.
‘As soon as we left the Wish Lounge he was going fast.
The Wish Lounge, a late-night shisha restaurant popular with young Iraqis, is less than a mile from where the accident took place.
Zamarod, who is being treated at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, has had metal plates inserted in her arm and leg.
She said members of the police crash investigation team have yet to interview her and she has not made any formal statement about the accident.
Zamarod contacted MailOnline via a video call from her Instagram page.
‘Yagmur did eye lash extensions and I do body sculpting. She had been working out of my salon and we would recommend customers to each other.’
Pictured: Yagmur Ozden, the mother of a 12-year-old daughter, died at the scene after being thrown from a speeding Range Rover that ended up on the rail tracks at Park Royal station
Ozden, pictured above, was in the car with driver Rida Al Mousawi, 24, and her friend Zamarod Arif, 26, after going to a party on Sunday evening, before going to the Wish Lounge in Park Royal
Almost 10 hours after the horror crash a specialist train arrived at Park Royal station to remove the wrecked 4×4 at around 1.30pm. The mangled wreck was loaded on to an open carriage and taken away. Engineers on site hope to re-open the westbound Piccadilly Line between Acton Bridge and Uxbridge later today
Police said Yagmur’s next of kin had been informed and they had requested privacy.
In a tribute, her family described Miss Ozden as ‘an angel’ who was ‘very funny and could cheer up the saddest person’.
They said she had a ‘kind heart’ and that she loved ‘spending time with friends and family’.
A member of the driver Rida Al Mousawi’s extended family confirmed to MailOnline that Ozden was the woman killed in the accident caught on dashcam.
In an emotional tribute, the family described Miss Ozden as an ‘amazing and supportive mother’.
They added: ‘She had an amazing bond with her daughter and her daughter will always cherish those moments she had with her mum.’
The family said the 33-year-old had ‘always been afraid of speed and cars’, adding: ‘She would never want to drive in the evening as she would be scared.
‘She used to be a lash technician and loved doing lashes. Anything beauty related, she absolutely loved.’
Until a year ago Ozden worked as a specialist in eyelash extensions at a beauty salon in Kilburn High Road, North London.
The salon closed during the final lockdown of 2021 and Ozden is thought to have continued working from a studio in Maida Vale as a freelance beautician.
The family said when she wasn’t working, she ‘loved spending time with friends and family’.
They added: ‘She was very funny and could cheer up the saddest person instantly, putting them in a better mood.
The Land Rover is pictured from above on the tracks of Park Royal station in West London, where the car landed after smashing through the barriers of the Tesla Centre next door
The Iraqi-born jewellery store manager had only recently bought the super-charged 4×4 when it careered off the road on Monday morning, smashed into a Tesla charging station (pictured above) and slamming into a parked Tesla where a 56-year-old man was sat inside
A fence is pictured broken just above the rail tracks as the scene behind shows police, debris and broken railings near the road
‘She was such an angel. She cared for everyone, she was very passionate in her heart and she loved deeply. We know that heaven has gained another angel.’
A neighbouring shopkeeper remembered her often calling into his store on her way home.
‘She was very chatty and would call in to get food and say she is going home,’ said the shopkeeper.
‘It is tragic what has happened to her and I feel for her young child.’
On her LinkedIn page Ozden described herself as a ‘eyelash extension artist.
Photographs posted to the job site two years ago show the My Studio beauty salon where she worked for a number of years.
Meanwhile, police continue to appeal for dashcam footage amid speculation that cars were ‘racing’ in the area.
The appeal comes as investigators wait for the driver of the Range Rover car involved to come out of a coma so they can speak with him.
Rida Al Mousawi, 24, remains in a coma at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington but his family insist he doesn’t drink or take drugs and that a mechanical malfunction could have caused his car to speed out of control.
Iraqi-born jewellery store manager Al Mousawi, who lives in Greenford, West London, was driving a super-charged 4×4 he at around 3.50am on Monday morning when he crashed into a Tesla charging station and parked car where a 56-year-old man was sat inside.
The car then crashed over the public footpath and onto the tracks at Park Royal station.
He reportedly runs the Hiba Jewellery store on London’s Edgware Road where he was well-known among other shopkeepers for his love of cars.
One told MailOnline: ‘He had only recently bought the Range Rover, trading in his Mercedes. The car was the most powerful version, the SVR.
‘He is a great guy and we all knew him as he had quite an active social life. He was single.’
Last night the family of Miss Arif, who describes herself as a personal trainer and ‘body sculpting expert’ who is also studying business, said that she was cut out of the car and remains in hospital with a broken arm and leg.
Dashcam footage shows the moment the performance 4×4 smashed through the barrier on the A40 at 3.48am and into a Tesla dealership, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.
A 57-year-old man was charging his car at the centre when the Range Rover slammed into it. He sustained non-life threatening injuries.
Miss Arif’s brother Raza Arif told the Daily Mail: ‘I found out at 8am. I got a call from the police to say that my sister had been in an accident. It meant a lot that she survived. That is my blood, that is my flesh, that is my everything.
‘I’m very glad and thank God. I can’t ask for more.
‘As her brother, it makes me feel absolutely frustrated. We are all in a state of shock as to how to comprehend someone doing 100mph in a 40mph zone. It makes no sense, no sense at all.’
A source at Jaguar Land Rover, which manufactures Range Rovers, has told the Mail that the Range Rover could have been travelling at more than 100mph when it flew off the road.
Uber driver Nawaf Ali, who was in the area at the time, described how a woman was ‘ejected’ from the Range Rover while it flew through the air.
He told MailOnline: ‘It looked like she had been ejected out of the car. If I’d been standing a few feet away then I would have been hit. It was like something out of a horror movie, only much worse.’
Crash investigators are trying to piece together the events leading up to his super charged Range Rover SVR leaving the A40 at high speed.
Witness Katee Moore, 30, was woken a couple of hours before the crash by the noises of loud engines.
She told the BBC: ‘About 2am I was woken up by the noise of cars going on for about an hour and a half.
Police stand at the crash site where a Range Rover collided with Tesla and then veered off the road onto the Piccadilly Line train track, near Park Royal Station in West London
Pictured: The view of the horror crash from above with the 4X4 Range Rover was left crushed on the train tracks of Park Royal tube station
‘There was a Range Rover parked up watching their friend in a BMW spinning around the roundabout.
‘Later on we heard this horrendous bang and then all of a sudden the police were there.
‘A lot of us went to put flowers down as apparently she’s a young mother with a six-year-old child.’
Detective Sergeant Jim Hinchcliffe from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit said:
‘This remains a live investigation and we continue to investigate the full circumstances of the collision.
‘I appreciate there is much speculation around the circumstances, including whether there had been racing in the area beforehand, and all of this forms part of the investigation.’
His colleague Detective Constable Ben Simpson added: ‘It is imperative that anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has any dash cam, CCTV or doorbell footage of the moments leading up to it, make contact with the police immediately.
‘A person has died and another remains critically ill in hospital and we need the public’s help to build our picture of what has happened here.’
A Met Police spokesman said the family of the 33-year-old victim had been informed of her death and asked for their privacy to be respected.
The appeal came as the family of Mr Al Mousawi claim that a mechanical malfunction could have caused his car to speed out of control.
They say Mr Al Mousawi did not drink or take drugs and was well aware of speed cameras on the road and would have no reason to be driving so fast.
An eye witnesses have said the super charged car was travelling at over 100mph.
Police have been unable to take a statement from Mr Al Mousawi.