A woman was airlifted to hospital with critical injuries after a two-vehicle crash on the notorious A9 yesterday.
The casualty and another woman had to be cut free after being trapped in the wreckage, following the collision at the Granish Junction, near Aviemore, which blocked the main Perth to Inverness road.
It happened just after noon, and also resulted in two other people being taken in by road ambulance – one with non life-threatening injuries and one walking wounded.
They were injured when a silver Vauxhall and black Volvo collided at the junction, with the first car ending up on the traffic island, embedded into a give-way sign.
Firefighters spent more than an hour delicately removing the roof of the Vauxhall, using hydraulic cutting equipment, before freeing the casualty and very slowly moving her away from the car.
A paramedic treated her on the ground before she was carefully lifted on to the Scotland Charity Air Ambulance, which took off for Raigmore Hospital, Inverness around 1.45pm.
Traffic meanwhile, was backed up for several miles, having come to a standstill in both directions, with many vehicle occupants getting out into the road, including the passengers of a service bus.
At the scene of the crash, highway maintenance workers frantically cleared debris from the road, while fire and rescue personnel disconnected batteries and checked for leaking fuel.
The Volvo, which came to rest several yards from the other car, had been badly damaged and had numerous dents, while the driver’s door had been removed by the fire crews.
Fire and Rescue station manager for Inverness and Nairn District, Graham Clark, praised the teamwork of the various emergency crews at the scene.
He said: “We were mobilised around noon, and deployed crews from Aviemore, Kingussie, and Carrbridge and, on arrival, established that there was one person trapped in each car.
“After creating a cordon, for the safety of our crews, we began working to free the casualties from each vehicle, and helping one other person suffering from severe shock.
“Working alongside our colleagues from the police and ambulance services, we were able to safely carry out the operation to extricate the casualties and move them from the area.
“While it was a straightforward road accident to deal with, it was made so by the partnership work taking place which allowed it to be carried out efficiently, and it is a credit to all the crews here today.”
Traffic began moving again at around 1.50pm, after the air ambulance, which had been mobilised from Perth airfield, took off.
The crash was the fourth in a weekend of carnage on the north’s roads which included an early-morning one-vehicle accident in Wester Ross.
Two men were taken to a GP surgery in Ullapool after the crash north of the village.
Their vehicle ended up on its roof in the accident on the A835 Ullapool-Ledmore at the Drumrunie junction.
The incident happened at around 6.40am yesterday.
Local ambulance crews attended however a spokesman for the service said that the two men were not injured.
They were taken to the Ullapool Medical Practice to be checked over.
A car also ended up on its roof on a Highland road following an earlier crash.
The blue Ford also struck and broke a tree in the accident on the A938 Dulnain Bridge-Carrbridge road, two miles north of Dulnain Bridge.
The northbound vehicle appeared to have crossed the opposite carriageway and gone into the verge, where deep grooves were left in the grass.
The vehicle then hit the birch tree, which was snapped close to its base.
Police said that the incident was reported to officers by the driver. It is understood that he was not injured, however a police spokeswoman could not say what time the crash happened.
However a “police slow” sign and traffic cones had been placed at the scene.
The fire service and ambulance service said they were not called to the incident.
And on Saturday, three cars collided on a busy Inverness street.
The accident happened at around 2.34pm at the junction of Tower Road and Culloden Road.
A red Vauxhall Corsa and a Ford Ka appeared to have collided head on at the mouth of the junction.
Meanwhile a grey Hyundai was sitting in part of the central reservation.
Three fire crews were initially alerted after reports of a woman being trapped.
However a spokesman for the service said that firefighters did not need to use their cutting gear.
He said that the woman was being treated by paramedics. There was no information on her injuries available.
The road was not blocked but police remained on scene to direct traffic until the vehicles were recovered.
This weekend’s incidents happened after a week of crashes on the region’s roads which left three people dead.
A biker died on Friday after a collision with a camper van on the Inverness-Thurso stretch of the A9, near Dunbeath.
It later emerged that the casualty was Dutch, while the van’s occupants were Italian nationals.
Earlier in the week, a German tourist was killed on the A87 Portree-Broadford road on Monday, after his car was in collision with another vehicle at Sconser.
Owain Ramsay, 19, who studied at Glasgow School of Art, was travelling back to the central belt with three friends after a holiday on Skye when the crash happened south of the Bun Loyne junction.