Two women have been injured in a crash at a notorious blackspot on one of the north-east’s busiest roads.
The pair were taken to hospital, one seriously injured, following the incident on the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road, shortly before 1pm.
The one-car accident, involving a red Citreon Picasso, happened around two miles south of Laurencekirk, at the infamous A937 Marykirk junction.
Fire crews were called to the scene and used hydraulic cutting tools to free the occupants from the vehicle.
The people carrier was left straddling the middle of the northbound carriageway, with its front and rear and wheels badly damaged.
Ambulance crews transported both occupants to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, with one said to be seriously injured and the other sustaining only minor injuries.
The road remained shut for hours afterwards to allow Bear Scotland to clear debris from the carriageway.
A spokesman for the ambulance service said: “We received a call at 12.48pm to attend at an incident on the A90, south of Laurencekirk.
“We dispatched two ambulances to the scene and two patients were transported to ARI.”
There have been calls to radically improve safety at the A937 junction for the past 15 years.
A grade-separated crossing was eventually announced in 2016 and last July transport chiefs revealed the preferred option for the new flyover, with a plan to realign the A937 and carry it across the dual carriageway, with roundabouts on either side.
Those proposals came after a 14-year campaign by Laurencekirk resident Jill Fotheringham, who has fought tirelessly for safety measures after her friend was killed while trying to cross the road there.
Ground investigation work began on the project in May.
The location of the crash is not far from the scene of a triple-fatal collision earlier this year.
Two men and a woman died and four people were seriously injured in the collision involving a bus and two cars near the Drumlithie junction at Glenbervie in March.
