A motorbike passenger was fighting for his life in hospital today following a crash in Gomersal which killed his friend.

The accident happened at around 5.45pm on Saturday when a T-Reg Kawasaki Ninja bike carrying two men, collided with the single-decker 213 Cleckheaton bus.

Inspector Tim Dale, from Dewsbury Police, said the bus had come out of Woodlands Road into Spen Lane and was involved in a collision with the motorcycle coming along Spen Lane towards Birstall.

Pillion passenger Mark Walshaw, 22, from Scholes, Cleckheaton, was thrown through the bus driver's side window and 27-year-old Benjamin Horton, who was driving the bike, went under the bus.

Mr Horton, who lived in Stoke and attended Keele University, was working as a relief bar manager at The George pub in Cleckheaton.

A scene of carnage met firefighters from Cleckheaton, Batley and Hunslet who attended the incident alongside the Major Rescue Unit from Cleckheaton fire station.

Airbags and chocks from the Major Rescue Unit were used to raise the bus to allow firefighters to free Mr Horton. Five ambulance crews and dozens of police also attended.

Paramedics from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance put a spinal collar on Mr Walshaw - who suffered multiple head and chest injuries - and flew him to St James's Hospital in Leeds, where he was taken to the Intensive Care Unit.

Today he was critical but stable.

The 58-year-old female bus driver from Ossett was taken to Dewsbury District Hospital on a spinal board suffering serious injuries to her neck and shoulder.

Andrew Willans, who was visiting his mother in nearby Roberson Terrace, said: "I just heard a bang and came out to see what had happened.

"There was a motorcyclist sitting in the bus's cab and the driver looked to be comforting him. It also looked like an old lady who must have been getting off the bus had fallen into the footwell. It was an awful scene - terrible."

Kevin Blackburn, of Shirley Grove, said he thought filter lights should be put on the junction of Woodlands Lane and Spen Lane to allow traffic to pull out safely. "Something needs to be done about this road," he said. "If someone pulls out it's dangerous."

Heckmondwike road traffic police are appealing for passengers on the bus - particularly three who had left the scene before the police attended - or any other witnesses who saw the vehicles prior to or after the crash, to contact PC Paul Feather on (01924) 421047.

The accident happened on the same stretch of road which claimed three lives last September following a crash between a bus and a car. It also comes less than a week after Batley motorcyclist Antonio Rhodes was fatally injured in an accident, also in Gomersal.

Police are appealing for witnesses to another road accident which occurred at 11.28pm yesterday outside Davybank Hospital in Duckworth Lane, Heaton, Bradford.

A silver Nissan Sunny car was travelling along Duckworth Lane towards Toller Lane. When negotiating a right hand bend the vehicle struck the nearside kerb and caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle, which slid across the road. The car collided with a lamppost and a stone wall.

The driver, a 45-year-old local man was critically injured and the passenger, a 36-year-old woman from Leeds suffered serious injuries. Both were taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Anyone who saw the accident or the Nissan Sunny immediately prior to the accident should contact Toller Lane police on (01274) 376259.