Father and son among dead in crash

A boy of 14, his father and an elderly woman died in a head-on car crash which left the teenager's mother and nine-year-old sister seriously injured, police said.

Ethan Sarkar and his father Derek, 46, from Birmingham, died when their Volkswagen Golf was in collision with a Volvo driven by Sheila Stavert-Lee, 70, from Wigginton, near York. The crash on the A614 near East Cowick, East Yorkshire, on Saturday afternoon left Mr Sarkar's wife and daughter, who have not been named, with critical injuries. They were in a serious condition in Leeds General Infirmary last night.

Debbie Hinchliffe, who lives close to the accident blackspot and who was the first person on the scene, said she heard children screaming in the back of the VW and tried to get them out. Other people arrived and were able to pull the children out, she said.

"The old lady was unconscious and kids were screaming in the back of the other car," she said. "And I couldn't get anybody out."

Smoke was pouring from the engine of Ms Stavert-Lee's Volvo and she feared it would catch alight. "I got in the car with her to turn the ignition off. I released her seatbelt and just stuck with her really," she said. "I couldn't do anything else."