A HOLIDAYMAKER is fighting for his life after being hit by a wheel which crashed through his car windscreen in a freak road accident in the USA.

Philip Gallimore was a front seat passenger in the car which was struck by the wheel after it catapulted off a passing trailer.

The 42-year-old, who was with his mother Margaret and sister Lindsay Green, is critically ill. He suffered severe swelling to the brain and is in a medical induced coma in a hospital's intensive care unit.

Mr Gallimore's mother, aged 69, and his sister are keeping a bedside vigil.

Today, his distraught sister said: "Phil doesn't look like he has been in an accident. It looks like he is just sleeping."

Mrs Green, aged 40, who emigrated to America 18 years ago, was driving the car at the time of the accident on the outskirts of the town of Warwick, Rhode Island, in Connecticut. Mrs Gallimore was travelling in the back.

The wheel flew off a waggon trailer as it passed them by on the opposite carriageway of the motorway.

Mrs Green said: "We were driving on the motorway when a trailer carrying construction material lost a wheel.

"The wheel catapulted across the central barrier and, after a truck in front of me swerved to avoid it, the wheel crashed through the windshield of my car"

Mrs Green suffered an injured back and hand. Mrs Gallimore was hit in the face by flying splinters of glass.

Avid Bolton Wanderers supporter Mr Gallimore and his mother, whose husband Fred died earlier this year, were on a two week holiday in Rhode Island visiting Mrs Green and her family. They were due to return home last Saturday.

A keen pool player Mr Gallimore is well known throughout the Bolton area for his involvement with the sport. He is general secretary of the Deane and Daubhill Pool League and plays for the Royal British Legion's pool team.

The former Canon Slade pupil, is a bachelor who lives alone with his Collie dog Max in the Brownlow Fold area of Bolton.

His family has been inundated with messages of support from well-wishers in Bolton.

Friend and fellow pool player Steve Carr said: "I have seen the photographs of the car and to be honest, I thought to myself how did they get Phil out of that one?

"I've known Phil for about 10 years and he is a great bloke. It's awful that something like this has happened.

"Everyone is just wishing him all the best. All the staff and the pool players at the Sportsmans Arms in Chorley Old Road send their regards too."

Paul Richardson, Club Steward of the Royal British Legion in Chorley New Road said: "We just want to wish Phil all the best and we hope that he makes a speedy recovery. Everybody has been asking him about him and hoping that he is going to recover."

A spokesman for Rhode Island Police said the incident is being investigated but he added that it was possible that the driver of the waggon which lost the wheel was unaware of the accident.