A York man was killed in a car smash on the B1224 York to Wetherby road.

The force of the collision was so great that the engine of the 20-year-old's Peugeot 306 was thrown clear of his car, and flying debris damaged five other vehicles.

The fatal accident took place outside Moss Carr Farm, near the village of Bickerton, on the B1224, at about 6.40pm last night.

The Peugeot driver had just crossed into North Yorkshire, heading towards York, when he lost control on a slight bend in the road and broadsided an oncoming vehicle, a Nissan Terrano four-wheel-drive. He was killed instantly.

The driver of the Terrana, believed to be from Harrogate, was taken to Harrogate District Hospital with chest injuries.

Andrew Vandenburgh, the motorist released from his mangled car after a two-and-a-half-hour rescue operation, was still in intensive care today.

The 37-year-old, who needed specialist treatment, was transferred to St James's Hospital in Leeds where he was described as "poorly but stable". His nine-year-old daughter, Vanessa, who was transferred with him, was "comfortable" on a general ward.

Their car skidded off the A64 at Oxton, near Tadcaster, on Monday, after a freak hail storm caught Mr Vandenburgh and other motorists unawares.

Their Ford Sierra smashed into a tree, uprooting it, and careered into a muddy ditch where it came to a rest on its roof.

Mr Vandenburgh, from Leeds, hung upside down, trapped by his broken legs, for two-and-a-half hours while emergency crews fought to reach him. They had to painstakingly cut away chunks of the car's chassis to free him.

It was one of several incidents caused by freak weather conditions.

A road crash at the junction of the A661 and the A658 near Knaresborough yesterday left Malcolm Tattersall, 54, from Harrogate, dead, and his wife Patricia, also 54, injured. She has now been discharged from Harrogate District Hospital. Their Renault Laguna collided head-on with a lorry driven by Frank O'Brien, 65, who was today described as comfortable in hospital.

Mr O'Brien's eight-year-old grandson, Andrew Burley, who was flung through the window of the lorry's cab, was today in a satisfactory condition in a children's ward, doctors said.

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