Man seriously injured as car ploughs into Smethwick shop
A man was seriously injured when his car left the road and struck a shop in Smethwick.
Police closed the road for at least two hours after the accident at the junction of Rabone Lane and Rolfe Street.
The man, believed to be aged in his 50s, was trapped in the car in the aftermath of the accident on Saturday.
Investigations are continuing into the circumstances of how the car came to leave the road.
Emergency crews says they believe the car spun and scraped along the front of the shop, believed to be used as a plumbers merchants.
Crews from Smethwick and Handsworth fire stations arrived shortly after 8pm to find the stricken Peugeot 206.
The car was still partially on the pavement as fire crews believed it had spun in the course of the collision.
Both front doors had to be removed to allow paramedics inside to remove the man from the car on a spinal board.
Watch commander John Wildman, from Smethwick fire station, said: "Our first act was to check on the condition of the male.
"We did check the building and there were some scrape marks on the front. The shutters were down and luckily there was no-one inside at the time."
West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Steve Parry said the man was treated for serious head, chest and pelvic injuries.
He said the man was taken to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital after he was safety removed from the car within around 40 minutes.
He added: "The hospital was alerted to the serious condition of the patient."
