Three die in multiple crashes

Three people died and others were injured during a weekend of tragedy on roads across the West Midlands and Staffordshire, it has been revealed today.

A man was killed and another female passenger was today critically ill after being thrown from a car in a smash on the M6 by Stafford. A Toyota Seleca and a VW Golf collided on the northbound carriageway between junctions 14 and 15 and ended up in a ditch at the side of the motorway. A male passenger in the Toyota was pronounced dead at the scene.

And a female passenger ended up trapped under another vehicle after being flung out of the car due to the impact after the accident at 6.30pm on Saturday.

Firefighters used lifting and cutting equipment to raise the car and release the woman, who was taken to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.

The drivers of both cars were described by paramedics as traumatised but unhurt. Two hours later emergency services were then scrambled to a second crash on the M6 northbound, between junctions 13 and 14 at Stafford.

A lorry and two cars crashed at 8.30pm, leaving a 50-year-old man with multiple injuries, 44-year old woman with head injuries and a 46-year-old woman with facial injuries.

Two other people received minor injuries.

A driver was killed in the third crash, which saw a car leave the road and plough in a river running next to it.

Firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene on the B5014 Lichfield Road between Hanch Hall and the A515, at 6.15am yesterday.

The driver was declared dead at the scene and two passengers were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

In a fourth smash, a woman was airlifted to hospital after the van she was a passenger in rolled several times on the M5 at Worcestershire. The woman, believed to be in her 30s, suffered shoulder, hip and leg injuries in the accident between junctions 4A at Catshill and 5 at near Wychbold at 9.20am yesterday.

Hours later an elderly driver died at the scene following a suspected heart attack at the wheel on a busy road near Aldridge.

The car being driven by the 70-year-old is believed to have swerved across the A452 Chester Road at around 1.40pm yesterday.