A crash caused commuter chaos around Kidderminster as traffic jams built up during a battle to rescue a woman driver from the wreckage.

The woman, aged in her 70s, was airlifted to hospital after being trapped for 45 minutes during the drama.

Heavy tailbacks stretched back more than two miles to the Spennells roundabout in Kidderminster and several miles further into the town and around Spennells Valley Road as fire and ambulance crews worked together to free the woman.

The air ambulance had to land in a field because the tree-lined road is too narrow.

It meant the injured woman had to be lifted over a locked gate and carried 100 yards to reach the waiting helicopter.

The driver of a second car involved in the crash, a man in his 60s, suffered head and chest injuries and was taken by road in an ambulance to Worcester Royal Hospital.

The crash happened at about 4.50pm yesterday on the A448 Comberton Road, between Mustow Green and Kidderminster.

Two rapid response vehicles, an ambulance, incident support officer, and an emergency doctor gave medical help at the scene.

The woman was flown to Selly Oak Hospital, Birmingham.

West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Murray MacGregor, said: “The two cars, which each had one occupant, had both suffered extensive front end damage.”