Chaos follows smash on M6

Rush-hour motorists were caught up in traffic chaos after a crash involving a car and a lorry on the M6 in Staffordshire.

Four people, two men and two women, all in their 70s, who were in the saloon car were taken to hospital after it left the carriageway and went down an embankment between junctions 13 and 14 at Stafford at 3.20pm yesterday.

The front seat passenger, a man, had chest and head injuries and was flown by air ambulance to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. The other people in the car were not hurt but taken to the same hospital for a check-up. Two men in the lorry were uninjured.

Fire crews from Stafford and Penkridge freed the passengers in the car. The crash caused chaos as motorists left the motorway and travelled through Stafford to avoid the queues.

Meanwhile, two women and two girls, aged 13 and 15, were treated for minor injuries after a car crashed into a wall in Oldbury. The silver Peugeot hit a brick wall in Freeth Street just before 9 o'clock last night.