Christina Hendricks survived a terrifying childhood car accident which could have killed her entire family.

The Mad Men actress was just a little girl when a family camping trip ended in disaster as the group's Volkswagen van careered off a mountain road and into a ditch.

The family survived the crash, but Hendricks admits they were all scared for their lives.

She tells FOX411's Pop Tarts column, "I was in my family's VW bus, we drove everywhere and my family would go camping all the time. We were up in the mountains and it was snowing, and my dad was sightseeing. And we just slowly went off the road into this ditch and we didn't know how deep it was... we really thought we were dying.

"My mom went, 'OK everyone, here we go.' And luckily we stopped, after about five feet down. But we were tilted in this snow bank, my dad had to go out and hitchhike and get us pulled out. It was terrifying. I remember feeling a sense of calmness. I was like, 'Oh, this is the calm you get before you die.'"