CYCLIST FIGHTING FOR LIFE

pdated: A WOMAN cyclist from York is today fighting for her life in Leeds General Hospital after she and a bus collided on a major York road.

Police are appealing for witnesses who were in the area at the time.

The cyclist, a 40-year-old local woman, sustained serious head injuries in the collision and is in a critical condition in Leeds General Infirmary.

Traffic sergeant Julian Pearson, of North Yorkshire Police’s Road Policing Group, said: “The police would like to speak to anyone who saw the collision or the cyclist prior to the incident.

“We are also keen to trace any motorists who were leaving the city towards Fulford around the time of the collision. They may have seen the cyclist at the junction of the army barracks with Fulford Road just before the collision occurred.”

The crash, in Fulford Road, was one of two accidents that brought traffic chaos to yesterday evening's rush hour with huge queues of traffic forming in Heslington, Fulford, the city centre and near the Poppletons.

The cyclist was rushed by ambulance to York Hospital at 5.25pm.

She was riding a blue bicycle when it collided with the York Pullman No 55 service heading into the city centre from Fulford.

The accident occurred in the northbound bus lane as the cyclist was turning right out of Imphal Barracks on Fulford Road and collided with a bus.

Major safety work has recently been carried out in Fulford Road, including new bus and cycle lanes.

Scenes of crime investigators were at the scene yesterday evening as police closed Fulford Road closed in both directions between Cemetery Road and Broadway while police investigations were conducted.

Traffic was diverted along Heslington Lane and through the University of York campus until the road was reopened at around 10.30pm.

Huge queues rapidly built up and spread backwards along the inner ring road.

Anyone with any information that could help the investigation is urged to contact Traffic Sergeant Julian Pearson on 0845 60 60 24 7, quoting reference number 12100085300.

About half-an-hour earlier, firefighters had rescued a person who was trapped when three vehicles, a silver Citroen C3 taxi and a white Vauxhall Movano van, and a Toyota collided about 500 yards from the Poppleton turn-off on the A59 near the Wyevale Garden Centre. The man driving the Toyota and the man in the Vauxhall were not injured, but the female passenger in the Citroen C3 taxi sustained minor injuries.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue crews used cutting equipment to remove the door of the car and she was assisted out of the vehicle and taken to hospital by ambulance.

A mile-long queue of stationary traffic developed on the A59 York-bound carriageway. The A169 at Low Marishes between Malton and Pickering was also closed and a woman was airlifted to Harrogate Hospital with neck and leg injuries following a road crash there. A road ambulance took a second injured person to York Hospital.

Three vehicles were involved in the crash, a silver Range Rover, a blue Nissan Micra and a red Renault Clio.

Firefighters had to free one person, who was trapped in the wreckage.

More to follow.