A man was airlifted to hospital yesterday after a serious accident on the north’s main road.
He was the driver and sole occupant of a silver Hyundai car which was involved in a two-car smash on the A9 Inverness to Thurso route.
An RAF Sea King helicopter flew him to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he was being treated for serious injuries last night.
He had been cut from the wreckage by fire crews from Golspie and Helmsdale.
Another two people – one man and a woman with minor injuries – were taken to Caithness General Hospital in Wick by road ambulance.
The crash, which blocked both northbound and southbound lanes of the road on a 60mph section at Loth, south of Helmsdale in Sutherland at 4.35pm, also involved a black BMWx5.
The BMW is believed to have been heading north and the Hyundai in the opposite direction.
The fronts of both vehicles were badly crushed and the roof which had been cut from the Hyundai was sitting against a barrier at the side of the road.
There was a large amount of debris, including an intact car battery from the Hyundai, scattered across the road.
The fronts of both cars ended up facing in towards the centre of the road.
A police spokeswoman at the scene said that some drivers queuing at either side of the crash at about 5.30pm started choosing to divert via a single track road over a nearby hill in an attempt to get past the scene leading to congestion.
Police were yet to begin their investigations at the scene at 8pm last night.
A spokesman for the ambulance service said that ambulances, doctors and an RAF helicopter were called out to the scene.