Two critical after string of crashes

Two people were critically injured and eight others cut from cars following a string of serious crashes on Black Country roads.

Two men were critically injured when the silver Lexus they were travelling in collided with two parked cars and careered into a concrete lamp post in Dudley.

A third was seriously hurt. It took firefighters from Dudley and Brierley Hill almost three hours to release the three men, all in their 20s, from the mangled wreck of their car.

It had crashed on Himley Road, near Milking Bank, at 7.15pm on Saturday.

West Midlands Ambulance spokeswoman Claire Thomas said the first man to be released had pelvic and leg injuries and was taken to Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital.

The second, who had critical pelvic injuries, and third, who had serious leg injuries, were given pain relief before being taken to Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital.

A further four people had to be cut from cars involved in a smash near a busy Black Country junction. Emergency services were scrambled to Wolverhampton Road, near Castle Road West and Hagley Road, in Oldbury, after two cars collided at 7.50pm on Saturday.

The woman, in her 20s, suffered neck and back pain in the crash and was taken to Selly Oak Hospital. Two men and three women from the second car were taken to City Hospital.

A teenage girl was yesterday airlifted to hospital after the car she was travelling in left a motorway and ended up in a field. Ambulance crews were called to the M6 northbound carriageway, just before the M6 toll in Coleshill, at 7.50am.

The 18-year-old, who was lying in the field, suffered head, back and abdominal injuries. She was given pain relief before being airlifted to Selly Oak Hospital. A woman and a man suffered minor injuries in the crash.

Meanwhile in Wolverhampton, an 18-year-old man was cut free from his Peugeot 106 after it collided with a Nissan Primera estate on Compton Road at about 5pm on Saturday.

A 21-year-old driver of a Ford Fiesta suffered a fractured wrist and a 56-year-old driver of a Ford Focus was also taken to hospital after a crash at 2.30am on Saturday at the junction of Bloxwich High Street and Lichfield Road .