A MAN was airlifted to hospital yesterday after a serious accident on the north’s main road.
He was the driver and sole occupant of a silver Hyundai car which was involved in a two-car smash on the A9 Inverness to Thurso road.
An RAF Sea King helicopter flew him to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he was being treated for serious injuries.
He had been cut from the wreckage by fire crews from Golspie and Helmsdale.
Another two people – one man and a woman with minor injuries – were taken to Caithness General Hospital in Wick by road ambulance.
The crash, which blocked both northbound and southbound lanes of the road on a 60mph section at Loth, south of Helmsdale in Sutherland at 4.35pm, also involved a black BMWx5.
The BMW is believed to have been heading north and the Hyundai in the opposite direction.
The fronts of both vehicles were badly crushed and the roof which had been cut from the Hyundai was sitting against a barrier at the side of the road last night.
There was a large amount of debris, including an intact car battery from the Hyundai, scattered across the road.
The fronts of both cars ended up facing in towards the centre of the road.
A police spokeswoman at the scene last night said that some drivers queuing at either side of the crash at about 5.30pm started choosing to divert via a single track road over a nearby hill in an attempt to get past the scene leading to congestion.
Police were yet to begin their investigations at the scene at 8pm last night.
A spokesman for the ambulance service said that ambulances, doctors and an RAF helicopter were called out to the scene.
Meanwhile, a man had to be cut from his car after an accident on the A9 yesterday morning.
The two-car accident happened on a single carriageway stretch of the Inverness-Perth road south of Dalwhinnie, close to the boundary of the Highlands and Perthshire.
The male driver of a Volkswagen Passat estate had to be cut free from his vehicle by firefighters who removed the car’s roof.
A police spokesman said that despite being trapped, the driver had been conscious while his rescuers worked around him.
He was later taken to Raigmore Hospital by ambulance and was suffering from injuries to his back.
He was said by police to have suffered “non life-threatening injuries”.
The two male occupants of the other car, an Audi A4 estate, were able to get out of their vehicle unaided.
It is understood that the Volkswagen was travelling north at the time of the accident, while the Audi was heading in the opposite direction.
The accident happened between the two entrances to layby 82 on the trunk road. The road was blocked while emergency crews dealt with the accident, but police used the layby to allow traffic to bypass the scene.
The Volkswagen was damaged on the driver’s side, with the front wheel folded underneath the car in the collision.
A rear wheel was ripped off the Audi in the collision, while the car’s rear bumper had was damaged.
Fire crews from Kingussie and Newtonmore were first on the scene along with paramedics.