AN elderly woman was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after a three-car crash in the district yesterday.

The victim was trapped in her vehicle for an hour as firefighters battled to cut her free.

Paramedics injected her with morphine to ease her pain.

The smash, at the junction of Park Road and Charles Street in Bingley, was sealed off for at least three hours.

as emergency services rescued the victim and police accident investigators examined the scene.

Three other people, two children and a second elderly person, were taken to Airedale General Hospital in Steeton with minor injuries.

The collision, which occurred at around 10am, involved a Peugeot, a black BMW, and a Toyota Yaris.

A fire service spokesman said the Peugeot appeared to have pulled into Park Road from Charles Street was then involved in a collision with the other two cars, one of which was travelling towards Bingley and the other away from the town.

The spokesman said the 69-year-old woman driver of the Toyota was trapped by her legs.

He said: “The front of her car was crumpled. We had to cut the roof and doors off to get to her and she was then put on a spinal board to take her out. It took about an hour to extricate her. She was in a lot of pain and paramedics were giving her morphine intravenously. She appeared to have leg injuries and said she had chest pains.

“An ambulance took herto Myrtle Park, where an air ambulance landed and airlifted her to hospital in Leeds.”

The spokesman said a ten-year-old boy, a passenger in the BMW driven by his father, was taken to Airedale General Hospital as a precaution. He said paramedics checked out the occupants of the Peugeot but they were not taken to hospital.

Fire crews from Bingley and Shipley attended the accident and around ten firefighters were involved in the rescue operation.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed three vehicles had been involved in the accident and said a woman in her 60s suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries involving fractures to her lower limbs.

A Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokesman said three ambulances, a helicopter and a rapid response vehicle attended the accident.

and one person had been taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary.

She said two children and another elderly casualty, all with neck pain, had been transported to Airedale General Hospital.