A 20-YEAR-OLD man is critically ill after his car crashed on loose stone chippings and careered down a 25ft banking.
Last night's crash comes just two weeks after 41-year-old information technology consultant Paul Anthony Meany died when his car was in a head-on crash with a lorry on Wakefield Road, Grange Moor.
The road was also covered in loose stone chippings and Mr Meany, of Waterloo, died at the scene.
In last night's crash at 7.35pm, the 20-year-old from Honley was catapulted out of the car moments before it plunged down the steep embankment.
He was driving the brand new silver Mini Cooper on Huddersfield Road towards Meltham and had just gone through the Healey House bends when the car is thought to have skidded on the loose stone chippings while overtaking another vehicle.
The Mini hit a kerb, smashed into a stone wall and threw the driver out.
Leading firefighter Tony Rostron, of Slaithwaite fire station, said: "When we arrived the driver was being lifted into an ambulance.
"Normally we disconnect batteries on crashed cars, but even that was impossible.
"The car was crushed between trees and was so mangled it was impossible to get to the battery."
The driver was said to be in a critical condition today at Leeds General Infirmary with serious head injuries and severe cuts.
* A driver ran off after a crash drama - leaving his injured passenger lying in the road.
The man was driving a silver Honda CRX down Morley Lane in Milnsbridge at 1.20pm yesterday when he lost control and careered into a stone wall.
Around 25ft of the wall was damaged and the car also smashed into a lamppost, spun across the road and crashed into a van coming the other way.
The driver clambered out, but the passenger - a 28-year-old Cowlersley man - was left in the road.
He is not thought to have been badly hurt.
The van driver, a 39-year-old Lindley man, escaped injury.
Anyone who saw the driver running away or knows who he is should contact Pc Richard Foale on 01484 436847.
