FOUR people were taken to hospital this morning after a head-on crash on a busy main road in Waterfoot.

Part of Burnley Road East outside J H Hirst was blocked and a diversion was set up while emergency crews fought for 40 minutes to free the injured.

Val Trickett, 50, of Foxhill Drive, Whitewell Bottom, was being taken to work at J H Hirst by her husband Joe, 62,? in their Vauxhall Cavalier when it was in collision with a Royal Taxi car delivering a fare to Burnley.

Her friend Jeanette Hurst, who lives near to the accident site, said: "My husband Roy was setting off for work when the crash happened and he came back in to tell me Val was involved.

"Her sister Jean was walking to work at Hirst's when she came across the accident."

Both the front of the Cavalier and the Ford Sierra taxi were extensively damaged.

Firefighters used spreading equipment to prise the driver's door of the taxi open to free the driver Jonathan Clingan, of Whitworth, who had an ankle injury. His passenger Anthony Wolfe, of Waterfoot, was also taken to Burnley General Hospital.

Mr and Mrs Trickett were taken to hospital with chest and head injuries.

Mr Hurst said: "This road is a death trap. They need to restrict the parking to one side of the road because accidents happen too often round here." When Mrs Hurst bought her house 15 years ago there was no frontage because a quarry lorry and car had smashed into it.

She said: "There is spare land further up Burnley Road East which could be made into a car park which would mean people did not have to park outside their houses.

"We have had our cars wrecked on three occasions while they have been parked on the roadside."

Mrs Hurst, who hs two children Stefan, seven, and Juliet, six, added: "We daren't allow them to play in the street and they are banned from crossing the road on their own."

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