Firefighters battled for an hour to free a man from the wreckage of his car after a smash on a busy Moray road.
Emergency services were called to the Forres area around 3.50pm, after a grey Honda CRV and Ford Ranger 4×4 pick-up collided.
Firefighters freed the man from the Honda, and he was taken to Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin with a neck injury.
The accident happened on the A96 Inverness-Aberdeen road at the Waterford junction.
The 4×4, which belonged to the Scotia Gas Network, was badly damaged in the impact, with its bumper left mangled.
The driver’s side of the CRV was badly bashed, and fire crews worked for roughly an hour to carefully lift the injured motorist from the car.
The vehicles blocked the eastbound carriageway heading towards Elgin, and diversions were put in place.
Rush hour commuters were directed through Forres High Street following the accident.
A police spokeswoman confirmed that only one man was injured in the smash.
She added: “Emergency vehicles attended the scene, and fire crews were called to help someone get out of their car.
“The driver of the Honda was complaining of a sore neck, and was taken to hospital to be treated – but it appears to be nothing too serious.”
A spokeswoman for the fire service added: “Crews from Forres and Elgin attended the incident, and had to use cutting gear to release a man from his vehicle.”
The stretch of the A96 was reopened at 5.30pm.
An accident on the busy trunk road last week left four people seriously injured.
Two cars collided head-on on the outskirts of Lhanbryde on Wednesday afternoon.
One German man was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness amid concerns his injuries could prove fatal.
Later in the week, police confirmed that the four individuals injured in the crash had been transferred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment.