A young English woman who was in a taxi hit by a cement truck has been told by doctors she would be dead if she hadn't been wearing such a tight-fitting dress.

Zoe Turner, 21, paid £35 ($67) for a form-fitting red dress from an online retailer so she could wear it to her mother's work Christmas party on December 13.

But on the way back to her West Yorkshire home the taxi she was sitting in was struck by a cement mixer.

Ms Turner told the Telegraph she was in "unimaginable pain" from the crash.

"The pain and restriction my dress was causing was unbearable and I stumbled out of the car," she said.

"The doctors told me that if I hadn't worn such a tight dress which held in place my bones as the car impacted, I would have most definitely punctured vital organs as my bones went out of place."

Doctors told her the bodycon dress acted like an old-fashioned corset and stopped her bones popping out and cutting into her internal organs.

Zoe Turner in a photo taken hours before the accident. (Instagram) (Instagram)

"I couldn't believe my dress saved my life," she said.

"That's the best £35 I've ever spent."

Ms Turner did not walk away unharmed though. She suffered a fractured pelvis, fractured vertebra and broken sternum.

She was released from hospital just five days later.

The driver broke his neck when his head went through the window and her three friends suffered broken arms, eye sockets and pelvises.