A man was airlifted to hospital in a serious condition yesterday after a car crash on the A9 in Caithness.
The incident involved three cars and happened at about 8.50am near the Inverness to Thurso road’s junction with the B874 road to Halkirk.
It was one of a number of collisions on the north’s roads yesterday – including several at different locations on the A9.
The Halkirk junction accident, around six miles south of Thurso, happened at the same spot as an earlier accident, where a Citroen C2 had gone off the road overnight from Sunday into Monday.
It was awaiting recovery yesterday when the later crash happened, although it was not believed to have been directly involved.
A man in his 50s had to be airlifted from the scene and was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he remained in a serious condition last night.
The incident involved two Ford Fiestas and a Vauxhall Corsa.
The road reopened around 3.30pm after specialist road policing officers had carried out a full investigation at the scene.
Shortly after the road reopened, a police spokeswoman said: “A male driver in his 50s was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he remains in a serious condition.
“The other two drivers escaped serious injuries.
“Police are appealing to anyone who witnessed the collision and hasn’t already spoken to an officer to make contact via 101.”
A diversion was put in place through Halkirk while the road was closed.
Elsewhere, a collision involving a lorry and a car briefly caused disruption at a busy junction just off the A9 at Inverness.
The two vehicles collided at the Raigmore Interchange, which links the A9 with the A96 Inverness to Aberdeen road.
Nobody was seriously injured in the incident, which happened just before 1.30pm.
Fire crews from the city were initially called to help free the female driver.
However, she had managed to free herself before the emergency crews arrived.
Fire crews had earlier been called to free a casualty who was trapped in her car after a one vehicle accident on the A9 southbound near the turn-off for Moy.
A spokeswoman for the fire service said the female driver was “medically trapped” and crews had used spreading equipment to release her.
