Airlift to hospital for victim of serious car crash

A DRIVER was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after a horrific crash involving a 44-tonne HGV and three other vehicles on a rural Huddersfield road.

Police were called to the A637 Barnsley Road in Flockton, a short distance from the Grange Moor roundabout, at 6.44am yesterday. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance was called and a 48-year-old man was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary.

A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said the driver had suffered “serious injuries, but they were not believed to be life-threatening.”

The road was closed for several hours while investigators tried to work out what had happened.

The spokeswoman said the road was fully reopened by 11.40am.

Four vehicles were involved in the accident which included a VW Golf which the injured man was driving.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said three crews from Huddersfield and Skelmanthorpe attended and firefighters released the driver from the VW Golf who was airlifted to hospital.

There are weight restrictions on vehicles heading from Grange Moor towards the M1 at West Bretton but no restrictions on vehicles travelling in the opposite direction.

Veteran Flockton parish councillor Jimmy Paxton said: “I feel very sorry for those people who have been injured.

“The biggest problem is that I can’t understand how it happened at that particular part of the road.

“It’s a flat stretch of road as you leave Grange Moor, it’s something that should never have happened.”

And he said he feared there might be more serious accidents in the near future with an extra 180 houses in the process of being built.

Clr Paxton added: “That road is a ‘cartrack’ and it’s not wide enough to accommodate the volume of traffic that will be generated. But Kirklees Council said there have not been enough accidents for it to be recognised as a major problem.”

He says the answer would be to create a special link road between the A642 Wakefield Road and the A637 Barnsley Road – something that has been talked about since as long ago as 1956 – and he is looking forward to sharing his views on the subject at the next meeting of Flockton Parish Council on Thursday, December 7.

He said: “I’m trying to get it on the agenda. It would be the ideal solution and it would only take three-quarters of a mile to make it work.”