MP calls for action over crash-hit A5 from Shrewsbury to Ruabon

It comes following the latest serious accident to happen on the road, a major route through Shropshire and into north Wales.

Emergency services were called to the collision on the A5 near Queens Head, south of Oswestry, on Sunday, when a couple in their 70s were trapped in one of the cars for an hour, then flown by air ambulance to Royal Stoke University Hospital with "life-changing" serious injuries.

Damage caused by the crash meant that part of the carriageway had to be resurfaced and the A5 was closed in both directions between the B4397 at Shotatton and the Mile End Roundabout until shortly before midnight.

Mr Paterson said: "This accident was awful for those concerned and traumatic for their friends and family. We need to get the A5 up to modern standards.

"The Queens Head section was built 25 years ago but although it is quite new, it is still dangerous.

"The only solution is to have a proper dual carriageway in both directions and we need to get this project into the long-term strategy. And I aim to meet Transport Minister John Hayes shortly, to discuss this.

"Statistics show that people with local addresses are disproportionately affected but I don't know yet if this couple were local or not."

Mr Paterson has previously the road has two of the most dangerous junctions in Shropshire – at Shotatton crossroads and Queens Head, near Oswestry.

The A5 is a dual carriageway from the end of the M54 at Wellington to the western edge of Shrewsbury at Montford Bridge. It then becomes single lane, except for the Nesscliffe bypass, for the rest of its route through Shropshire and when it joins up with the A483 on the edge of Oswestry.

Mr Paterson hopes to persuade the minister that the road north of Shrewsbury should be made a dual carriageway and will also press for a bypass for Llanymynech and Pant on the nearby A483 on the Shropshire/Powys border.

Mr Paterson has been campaigning for improvements to the A5, particularly the stretch between the Nesscliffe bypass and the North Wales border, for almost 20 years.

The proposed Llanymynech and Pant bypass is in the Government's long term road improvement programme although it is currently marked as "on hold".

West Midlands Ambulance Service sent three ambulances and a paramedic area support officer to the scene of the latest crash, together with the Midlands Air Ambulance from Cosford and the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance.

The driver of the second car, a man thought to be in his 40s, was treated for a pelvic injury and a cut to his face. He was immobilised and given pain relief and transported to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital by ambulance.