Two killed in crashes

A teenage motorcyclist and a 22-year-old car driver have died in a night of carnage on the West Midlands' roads.

The 18-year-old rider died after colliding with a car in West Bromwich. Both vehicles burst into flames and it is thought the rider died from his burns while his pillion passenger escaped with a broken leg.

Hours later a 22-year-old man died after his car hit a wall and ended up in a front garden on Cannock Chase.

And four men were injured, three seriously, following a separate three-car smash in Aldridge.

In the West Bromwich incident, a 43-year-old man, a woman and their three children escaped their blazing Ford Granada in Dartmouth Street after colliding with the motorbike rider at 10pm.

The rider and his pillion passenger were taken by ambulance to Sandwell Hospital where the rider, who has not yet been named, later died.

Crew Commander Steve Cartwright of West Bromwich fire station said: "Passers-by had helped pull the driver of the motorbike from under the car and one of our crews took over CPR until the paramedics arrived." The motorbike was so badly burned the number plate was unreadable.

On Cannock Chase the 22-year-old man died after his car hit a wall and ended up in a front garden in Main Road, Milford, near Stafford, at 1.20am.

Firefighters cut off the door of the blue Ford Ka so paramedics could get to the driver. But the man, from Stafford, was later pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash in Aldridge happened in Walsall Road at 6.50pm. Ambulance crews said three cars were involved, and the people involved were lucky not to be more seriously hurt.

All of the men were believed to be in their 20s.

By Sally Walmsley