A toddler was airlifted to hospital with serious injuries yesterday after a two-car smash on the north-east’s busiest road left five people hurt.
The two-year-old boy, his seven-year-old sister and the youngsters’ 26-year-old mother were all among the casualties in the crash on the A90.
The family were travelling in a blue Peugeot 308 which was involved in a collision with a silver Volkswagen Passat.
The 73-year-old driver of the VW and his 71-year-old female passenger were also taken to hospital.
The man was trapped in the wreckage of his car for about an hour and had to be freed by firefighters.
The road was closed for about six hours.
The crash happened on the main Fraserburgh-Peterhead road at Rathen, about a mile north of the Cortes junction.
The young boy was taken to the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital by the Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance – which was on its most northerly mercy mission since being launched last year.
The child suffered leg injuries described by police as “serious, but not life-threatening”.
His mother, who had been driving the Peugeot, was also taken to hospital by ambulance along with his sister.
Firefighters from Peterhead and Fraserburgh used cutting equipment to free two people at the scene.
It is understood the children had already been freed from the Peugeot by the time the emergency services arrived.
A police spokeswoman said: “A passenger was airlifted to Aberdeen.
“The helicopter left at 2.30pm with one of the children onboard.
“There was a male and a female in one of the vehicles and a female and two children in the other.”
A spokesman later confirmed that four of the crash victims, including the child who was airlifted, sustained fractures to their legs.
The fifth casualty was discharged from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary last night.
The Scottish Charity Air Ambulance (SCAA) is based in Perth and funded solely by charitable donations.
Last night, SCAA chief executive Gavin Davey said the organisation’s Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm BO-105 aircraft was capable of reaching 90% of Scotland’s residents in 25 minutes and provided invaluable support to the Scottish Ambulance Service.
He added: “The ambulance service decides how to allocate resources and whether or not we are called out.
“We’ve already been called to incidents in Huntly, Braemar, Stonehaven and the Cairngorms, but this is the furthest north our ambulance has been.
“Air ambulances provide a vital service because they can travel to remote areas quickly and in straight lines, areas which could take hours to reach by road.
“We’ve had people come back to us to say they are only alive because of our air ambulance, and that is only possible through charitable donations.”
The helicopter – Helimed 76 – is crewed by one pilot and two paramedics and is capable of speeds of up to 167mph.
Since its launch in May last year, the SCAA has responded to road accident and industrial and agricultural incidents.
Yesterday’s accident happened about four miles south of Fraserburgh around 12.50pm.