Motorist in 999 collision airlifted to hospital

A woman was airlifted to hospital after her car was involved in a collision with a rapid response vehicle answering a 999 call in Shropshire.

A paramedic, a man in his 30s, was using blue lights and sirens when the accident happened on the B4361, near Richards Castle, yesterday.

The woman, in her 60s, was trapped with serious arm injuries and a cut to her head. She was freed by firefighters while receiving emergency treatment and airlifted to Hereford County Hospital.

The paramedic suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene before being taken by ambulance to the same hospital.

The road was closed after the collision, at about 4.15pm, and remained closed for an hour.

John Hawker, spokesman for West Midlands Ambulance Service, today said: "The trust takes any incident involving a service vehicle extremely seriously and a full investigation has been launched.

"We will work with the police to establish exactly what happened.

"After being alerted to the crash, the Emergency Operations Centre immediately sent another vehicle to the original case and there was no degradation to the service provided to that patient.

"The case was a call to a vehicle that had rolled over. It turned out that the driver of that car had suffered minor injuries."

Police are also re-appealing for witnesses after an elderly woman died when she lost control of her car which ended up on its roof in a field near Cleobury Mortimer.

The woman was travelling on the A4117, two miles from Hopton Wafers, on Thursday afternoon when the accident happened. Call police on 0300 3333000.