Weekend of chaos and tragedy on Shropshire's roads - with two dead and several injured
Two people died and several others were injured in a tragic weekend on Shropshire's roads.
Despite weather and flood warnings, Shropshire's emergency services might well have been surprised by the sheer volume of incidents they encountered across the county on Saturday and Sunday.
The first incident we were made aware of took place on Saturday morning - a crash on the A5 westbound between Cluddley and Preston Island near Wellington.
Amid wet and windy conditions, a car "left the carriageway" with the fire service initially sending three crews to deal with the incident.
The driver wasn't badly injured and the fire service's involvement was declared over at 8.50am.
But as crews were wrapping up in Wellington, emergency services were called to another collision just before 9am - again on the A5, this time near Shrewsbury.
A driver hit surface water and left the road on the eastbound carriageway between Dobbies Island and Emstrey.
He was lucky, the police said, to escape serious injury.
There were also reports of a third collision on the A5 involving a car and a horse box, but this wasn't confirmed.
At around the same time as the first collisions on the A5, a car ploughed into a tree in Telford.
The incident happened in Rushmoor Lane, Allscott at around 9am.
The fire service said no one was trapped and they just made the vehicle safe when they arrived.
An hour or two later, two cars collided on the M54. It happened on the eastbound motorway between junction 3 and junction 2 near Albrighton.
No one was badly hurt but it caused severe delays. Thankfully, it was largely clear by lunchtime.
Earlier that morning, the Environment Agency had released advice on driving through flood water. 'Don't do it' was the message.
That advice seems to have possibly been lost on one driver near Oswestry.
Fire crews were called into action to rescue a 56-year-old woman and her dog from a partially submerged car near Maesbury Marsh.
Again, no one was hurt, but it could have been extremely dangerous. The images released by the fire service show just how 'underwater' the vehicle was.
Then, tragedy struck.
At around 10.15am on Saturday morning, a crime scene investigation police vehicle was involved in a fatal collision in Morville Heath, Shropshire.
The incident happened on the A458 between Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth and involved a Skoda Octavia, driven by a member of the public.
The ambulance service was called to the scene but the driver of the Skoda, a man in his sixties, and a woman passenger in her fifties, were pronounced dead around 45 minutes later.
A third passenger, a woman in her 20s, suffered minor injuries.
The driver of the police vehicle suffered serious injuries and was taken to the QE Hospital in Birmingham.
The Police staff member was driving a crime scene investigation vehicle that was not travelling in response to an emergency.
It was a horrible tragedy on a road that has seen a number of collisions over the past 12 months.
Chief Superintendent Gareth Morris, of West Mercia Police said: "Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the man and woman following this awful incident, and our staff member who has been seriously hurt, at this difficult time.
"We ask that their privacy is respected. I would also like to reassure the public that we have referred the incident to the IOPC."
There was another crash on Sunday, in Telford.
At around 10.30am, police were dealing with "serious collision" on the A4169 in Lightmoor, Telford.
The road was closed at Ironbridge park and ride roundabout and Castlefields roundabout for several hours while the collision investigation team carried out their enquiries, but it did reopen on Sunday afternoon.
While it's tempting to search for concrete answers and maybe blame the weather, the truth is that the precise causes of each accident over the weekend haven't been confirmed.
In the wake of this weekend's tragedies it's important that we all do what the emergency services want us to - navigate Shropshire's roads with a solemn commitment to caution.
It is not, after all, unreasonable to suggest that people die too often on the county's roads.
