A TRAPPED motorist had to be cut out of a prestige Range Rover following an accident with an ambulance on a 999 call.
The incident happened opposite Huddersfield University at 1.30pm yesterday afternoon as the ambulance travelled down Queensgate towards the Shorehead roundabout.
It is thought the ambulance was heading on an emergency call to treat a child suffering from a fit when it collided with a black Range Rover worth about £50,000 that was turning out of Zetland Street.
The ambulance then smashed head-on into railings outside Bar Amour, badly damaging the front of the vehicle.
The smash left the Range Rover pointing the wrong way up Queensgate.
Luckily, despite all the damage, no-one in either vehicle was badly hurt.
Firefighters from Huddersfield and Slaithwaite attended the scene and freed the trapped driver who is thought to be in his late 50s. Firefighters cut the driver’s side door off.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said an ambulance technician from the crashed ambulance was already treating the injured car driver when they arrived. It took them 30 minutes to get him out.
A police spokesman said the drivers of both vehicles had escaped with minor cuts and grazes.
An eyewitness said both the driver and the passenger in the ambulance were able to walk out of the wrecked vehicle and other emergency services were on the scene in minutes.
The witness also confirmed the ambulance had its lights and sirens on and said the female passenger of the Range Rover also seemed unscathed.
Police stopped traffic heading south on Queensgate at its junction with Alfred Street and diverted it back down Chapel Hill, but large queues soon built up.
A recovery vehicle arrived to remove the smashed Range Rover at 2.30pm and the road was re-opened a short time later.
It is only two months since an ambulance on a 999 call ploughed in a shop on New Mill Road, Brockholes, to avoid a collision with another vehicle. Again no-one was badly hurt.
