POLICE were last night still trying to work out why a 30-year-old woman’s car came off the A64 near York and overturned in a ditch, killing her.

Traffic officers said no one who witnessed the accident had yet come forward, hampering their investigations into the cause of the tragedy.

The woman, who has not yet been named but is from the York area, was pronounced dead at the scene.

She was driving on her own towards Tadcaster and Leeds from the direction of York when the crash happened yesterday morning on the westbound carriageway.

Police believe it probably happened between 7.30am and 8am, when the morning rush hour was getting under way.

Officers said the emergency services were alerted by a member of the public who saw the wreckage in the ditch, after the accident had happened.

The woman’s vehicle, understood to be a black Toyota Celica, left the road just after a slight bend to the left, and appeared to have hit a tree before ending up overturned and very badly damaged in a ditch.

The accident, which happened half a mile from the Bilbrough Top flyover, blocked the westbound carriageway for five-and-a-half hours until about 1.30pm, causing traffic to queue back as far away as the Fulford Interchange.

Drivers were diverted onto the A1237 York Outer Ring Road, with some of them going through Bilbrough to get back on the dual carriageway.

The eastbound carriageway was also shut for a while as a precautionary measure after motorists, apparently distracted by the accident, were involved in a minor shunt accident.

Traffic Sergeant Paul Cording said he urgently needed to speak to anyone who saw the crash or had any information which might assist in his inquiries.

He asked people to call 101 and ask to speak to him, quoting reference number 0060.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue group manager Mal Austwick said three fire engines were called to the scene, where firefighters using cuitting equipment carried out some “extraction work.”


• ANOTHER motorist died in 2008 after coming off the A64 near Bilbrough Top and crashing into a tree.

In the darkness, the wreckage of 22-year-old John Wigglesworth’s Toyota Aygo was not discovered for hours.

His sister and fiancée later launched an online campaign for the A64 to be lit up at night, in the hope it might prevent more tragedies. They said they could not bear to see other families having to go through the heartache they had endured.