Woman dies and one-year-old girl critically injured in two-car crash near Newport

The tragedy happened at about 6.20pm on Saturday, on the A518 New Trench Road at Lilleshall, between the Red House roundabout and the Clock Tower junction near Newport.

The woman who died, aged in her 40, was driving a blue Mini which was involved in a collision with a grey Fiat 500X which the toddler was travelling in along with a man and a woman.

Two bystanders, an off-duty paramedic and off-duty firefighter, performed CPR on the 19-month-old girl before the emergency services arrived.

Meanwhile the adults in the car were left trapped with multiple injuries and had to be freed by firefighters.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said that when medics arrived they found a very serious collision between two vehicles, with one having left the road. The female driver was confirmed dead at the scene.

A spokesman said: "The youngster was quickly extricated from the car and was taken on blue lights to Princess Royal Hospital where her condition was stabilised. She was then transferred on blue lights, with the MERIT team travelling, to the paediatric major trauma centre at Birmingham Children’s Hospital where she arrived in a critical condition."

The injured man and woman were taken on blue lights to the major trauma centre at Royal Stoke University Hospital, with their conditions said not to be life-threatening.

West Mercia Police - whose officers attended the scene along with medics and fire crews from Newport, Wellington and Telford - has now appealed for witnesses to come forward.

The force has asked anyone who was travelling on the A518 New Trench Road at the time who witnessed the incident or has dash-cam footage to get in touch.

Meanwhile Dan Quinn, assistant chief fire officer at Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, praised the off-duty emergency workers who rushed to treat the girl.

He said: “This was an extremely sad incident, and we would like to offer our condolences to the loved ones of the woman who passed away. Our thoughts are also with the others involved in the collision and we hope they make a fast and full recovery.

“One of our off-duty firefighters saw the collision and was one of the first people on the scene, alongside an off-duty paramedic, and was able to rescue the child from one of the vehicles and give CPR while our crews and the ambulances were on route. I’d like to thank them both for their commendable actions.”

Five ambulances, five paramedic officers, the Midlands Air Ambulance Critical Care Car, the MERIT trauma doctor and critical care practitioner were on scene, together with the crew from the Midlands Air Ambulance at Cosford who responded in a car.

Anyone with information or footage is asked to visit the West Mercia Police website or call 101 quoting incident number 523i of February 12.

An earlier version of this story said that a consultation would be taking place over safety measures for New Trench Road later this year. The consultation in fact concerns Trench Road, and not New Trench Road.