A man has been badly hurt when his car crashed into a lamppost on the A650 Aire Valley Road.

It was the most serious of a spate of accidents caused by black ice yesterday.

Firefighters had to free the driver of the Peugeot car, a 44-year-old Lancashire man, after the crash, which happened at about 6.30am near Crossflatts roundabout. He received serious head and chest injuries and was taken to Airedale General Hospital where he was in a stable condition last night.

Anyone who saw the incident, or the car shortly beforehand, is asked to contact PC Lesley Tarves at Airedale and North Bradford Roads Policing on 0845 6060606.

Early morning rain falling on frozen ground caught many drivers out causing pile ups and traffic disruption across the district.

Officers received reports of crashes including an eight-car collision in Bolton Road, at 7.55am, and a four-car pile-up in Leylands Lane, Heaton, at 7.50am.

At the junction of Byland Grove and Rosedale Avenue, Allerton, at 7.50am, a red Nissan Almera was reported to have collided with a lamppost, and in Canal Road, Bradford, a bus was in a collision with a red Skoda Octavia car at about 7.55am.

In Ashbourne Gardens, Bolton, at 8.30am, police received reports two cars had collided, causing damage but no injuries.

In the Airedale and North Bradford police division 20 separate accidents were reported during the morning rush hour.

Five cars collided in Ferncliffe Road, Bingley, at about 8.15am and in Thwaites Brow Road, Keighley a car came off the road and a van crashed into a wall.

At 8am three cars collided on the A650 heading towards Keighley, near the Bingley slip road.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “Black ice caused a lot of problems.

“Our advice is to take into consideration the conditions of the road, especially during the early hours, give yourself the appropriate distance and take it slow. Do not brake heavily, and when you set off in the morning, make sure windows are clear.”

Keith Escritt, Bradford Council’s principal highways engineer, said: “We carried out gritting across all the district’s main routes last night at around 6pm and then a night patrol went out later to check for potential hazards.

“However, the rain may have washed some of this salt away and formed black ice in parts of the district as it fell.

“Black ice forms very quickly when rain falls onto roads which are initially dry and below zero.”