Emmerdale car crash horror explained as EVERYONE is injured after deranged Emma Barton tries to kill James

Emmerdale's epic horror car crash has been finally revealed.

Viewers watched in awe as the impressive stunt - that wrecked 14 cars - unfolded with multiple village favourites seriously injured as hit after hit rolled out.

With James Barton attempting to escape from his deranged ex-wife Emma, he fought against her but she shoved him into the road, where he promptly landed on a car driven by dementia-suffering former vicar Ashley.

In an emotional first episode of the night, the extent of Ashley's vascular dementia was revealed with the viewer seeing through his eyes as his memory failed him.

As he held his daughter Dottie at the altar for her Christening, he came back into view having forgotten what he was doing, and assumed he was still a vicar and began to apologise to the congregation for forgetting the baby's name or who the parents were.

"I'm terribly sorry everybody, I've entirely forgotten who the parents are," he said as Laurel called a halt to proceedings and reminded him it was his daughter being Christened.

Ashley began sobbing at the front of the church before a memory lapsed took him home.

But after being taken home, Ashley ended up forgetting he had attended the Christening and with his clock broken, frantically set off to get to the church on time.

Jumping into the car, he set off, driving at speed to make it to the church.

As the villagers began to search for him and the police put out patrols, Ashley continued to drive without incident.

Unfortunately as he was driving along, he passed under the bridge where Emma and James were facing off.

As the row intensified and Emma faced the prospect of losing everything and being arrested for her crimes, she pushed James and he hurtled down towards Ashley's car as the ex Vicar sang a hymn.

Landing on the windscreen, Ashley's car crashed over, and then the other villagers followed as disaster struck.

Pierce Harris, driving away from girlfriend Rhona spotted the crash in his mirror and swerved to stop, but then a van crashed into him sending him spinning.

Once he had recovered, he looked back to see Rhona and Paddy's car swerve to miss the carnage and end up flipping and rolling over and then another car hit his car, sending him careering off.

The action then turned back to Robert and Aaron - with the kidnapped Lachlan in the boot - who narrowly missed the pile up, but passed through the barrier and ended up flying off the road into the quarry, submerged in the water.

And then just for good measure another car crashed into the back of Rhona and Paddy's car shunting them further and leaving them both looking worryingly dead.

As the second episode began, the aftermath of the crash was laid bare, with Aaron Dingle and Robert Sugden trapped in their car underwater in the quarry.

Coming to, Robert somehow remained calm as he tried to wake Aaron up, but as the water levels in the car rose, it became apparent that Aaron was trapped under the steering column of the rapidly sinking car.

The pair desperately struggled to break free, with Aaron begging Robert to save himself and leave him to drown.

But at the last second as Aaron began to drown, the steering column gave way and the pair managed to escape with Robert dragging Aaron out of the car and to the bankside.

As the pair were helped to the side by Adam, Robert suddenly turned back and dived back to the car to rescue Lachlan who was still trapped in the boot.

But despite multiple dives back down to the car, Robert couldn't find the teenage terror, and it was only later that Lachlan revealed himself, having watched Robert trying to save him.

Back on the road, Pierce made his way out of his car to Rhona and Paddy's car and desperately tried to break into the car to rescue her.

But in a dark moment, after he managed to get Rhona out of the car, the vengeful businessman lied to the paramedics and insisted there was no-one else in the car, damning Paddy to an almost certain death as he lapsed in and out of consciousness.

At the last possible chance, Pierce changed his mind and alerted the paramedics to Paddy trapped in the car.

Meanwhile, Ashley cheated almost certain death again as he wandered around confused in the wreckage, when a crashing motorcycle flew directly at him before narrowly missing his head.

And even after Finn found him and tried to keep him safe, he ended up wandering off into the woods, still injured.

Laying down, it seemed Ashley was totally lost as his family tried to find him.

But while Ashley's family were desperate to find him, Emma was left reeling when son Finn called her with news - James had been in an accident but was very much alive.

• Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV

Got a story? email digishowbiz@the-sun.co.uk or call us direct on 02077824220.