A WOMAN with spinal injuries and a broken hip crawled for nearly four hours to get help after her car rolled over near Donnybrook in the middle of the night and left her unable to walk.

Police believe Joy Arnold, 51, might have passed out a number of times during her agonuising ordeal near Donnybrook in the early hours of Wednesday last week.

She had been playing darts at the Kirup Tavern until about midnight on Tuesday night, before leaving for her home on nearby Upper Capel Road, said Senior Constable Becky Breedveld.

She was just three kilometres from home when she struck trouble, said Senior Constable Breedveld. “She apparently swerved to miss a kangaroo or some other animal.”

The car rolled over and Ms Arnold blacked out.

“She doesn’t know how long (she was unconscious),” Senior Constable Breedveld said.

“When she woke up she crawled down the road and sat next to a road sign in the hope somebody might drive by.

“But no one came. Then she saw a light across the road, which was a farm.”

Despite immense pain, Ms Arnold decided to head for the light on her own. In warm conditions, she crawled through a muddy ditch, under an electric fence and across a paddock towards the light. “It took a while, because everything hurt,” Senior Constable Breedveld said.

Ms Arnold reached the farmhouse about 4am, though it was not clear if she had been crawling the entire time.

“She might have passed out a couple of times; she doesn’t remember (parts of the night),” Senior Constable Breedveld said. “She finally reached the farm and started knocking on the window.

“At first the farm wife didn’’t want to open the door because they have had some strange people come by in the middle of the night.”

But the pair knew each other, and when Leanne Wringe heard her name being called, she let the woman in and called an ambulance.

Ms Arnold had scans in Bunbury Hospital then was transferred to Royal Perth Hospital, where she was in a stable condition. It is understood she had brokenher hip and some ribs.

Senior Constable Trevor Baldwin of the Donnybrook Police said there was a possibility that livestock on the road could have been the cause of the accident.

There was an unconfirmed report of a cow on Upper Capel Road at the time of the accident. “Always be wary of livestock on country roads, particularly at dawn and dusk,” Senior Constable Baldwin said.