A young man and a woman were killed in a head-on crash on the Skipton western bypass early today when their Rover car collided with an articulated lorry.

It happened at an accident blackspot near the Snaygill industrial estate just before 3am and left wreckage strewn over 75 metres.

The force of the crash threw the lorry driver from his cab. Driver Steven Michael Dean, 28, of Killamarsh, Sheffield, was today being treated for shock at Airedale General Hospital.

The couple were in their twenties and thought to be from the Bradford area.

The fire officer in charge, Brian Pattyson, described the scene as one of the worst he had ever attended. He said: "It was utter devastation and as bad a road accident as you are likely to come across. The lorry itself was extensively damaged and so much so that the container part had sheared off its bolts and was in a precarious condition.

"The car was split into two and the front of the car was under the front of the cab. The rear of the car was 75m away from the lorry.

"At first neither the police nor ourselves could determine how many people were there. Because of the damage to the vehicles it was difficult to see. We thought there might be three but it was two."

A police spokesman said: "The car was on the lorry's side of the road but I cannot say how that came about".

There have been a spate of accidents on the Skipton/Western bypass since it was opened in 1982.

The latest tragedy has shocked the local councillors and triggered calls for an inquiry.

Chairman of Bradford Council's transportation planning and design committee Coun Latif Darr said: "Many Bradford people use this road and I am obviously deeply worried about any accidents which happen there."

He said he was writing to the Highways Agency which has responsibility for the trunk road asking for full details and an inquiry.

Councillor Tom Mould chairman of North Yorkshire County Council highways committee today called for a full investigation into the accident and was contacting senior officers immediately.

Chairman of Craven District Council Coun Janet Gott said there had been problems with people leaving winding country roads to come on to the stretch. She said: "It's a matter of very great concern and I am asking for a full report which will go to the District Council."

Councillor Robert Heseltine, a member of Craven District Council and North Yorkshire County Council, said: "There have been a succession of multiple fatality crashes on that road. We owe it to the victim's families to double and triple check it to make certain anything that is humanly possible is done to try and make it safer.

"It could just be tragic coincidence but the fact we are well into double figures with fatalities suggests there is something amiss."

Fellow Craven councillor Carl Lis added: "The A65 road up the dales is so slow what we are finding is that people are desperate to overtake on the Skipton bypass which is one of the better stretches of road. People are taking inordinate risks."

Craven ward Councillor Marcia Turner said she believed there was a major problem because of the proximity of the roundabout.

"We want fast roads and ring roads along Skipton but obviously I am very, very concerned about this situation." She said she would seek talks with North Yorkshire councillors about the accident.

Craven councillor Stephen Butcher said: "All fatal accidents are horrible, but I don't see how you could make that road safer - it was engineered extremely well. You could put double white lines down at one point, that might help."

The couple's car dark grey was registered in Bradford and the blue and white lorry from Tinsley, Sheffield.

As well as two fire appliances and a rescue tender from Skipton, a heavy lifting machine was used to move the cab so they could reach the car. The man and woman were certified dead almost at the beginning of the operation he said.

He added: "It was not so much the difficulty of getting them out as getting to them in the first place. It was a very severe impact which created a lot of devastation. The lorry driver went into the crash barrier and damaged part of that. It would be difficult to come across a more serious, definite impact."

He said another lorry driver, uninvolved in the accident, had come across the scene shortly afterwards and found the lorry driver in the crash rolling in the road. He was very distressed by the accident.

The operation took three and a half hours to complete and traffic was diverted onto minor roads.

The road was reopened at 9.30am.

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