SIX people, including a young child, are recovering today after a car collided with an ambulance in a head-on crash on a country road.While their injuries are not believed to be serious, a policeman on the scene near Wattisham Airbase described those injured as "lucky".
THREE people, including a young child, are recovering today after a car collided with an ambulance in a head-on crash on a country road.
While their injuries are not believed to be serious, a policeman on the scene near Wattisham Airbase described those injured as "lucky".
The smash happened when a black Citroen Xantia and the ambulance collided on the B1078 Bildeston Road, near Barking Tye, on Friday lunchtime.
Two adults and three children were travelling in the N-reg car when it was involved in the collision with the ambulance, which was travelling in the opposite direction on its way to an urgent call.
A motorist, who declined to be named, was travelling behind the ambulance when the accident happened at 11.50am. He heard a screech of brakes and "an almighty crash".
The force of the impact left both vehicles on the edge of a four-feet deep ditch by the side of the road.
Firefighters from Needham Market released one person who was lightly trapped from the wreckage.
The woman in the Citroen was taken to Ipswich Hospital by air ambulance suffering from head injuries. The other male front seat passenger and the three children, one of whom was believed to have a broken leg, followed in two ambulances. The female driver of the ambulance, a V-reg Mercedes, was also taken to hospital with a slight neck injury.
A spokesman for the ambulance service said that the ambulance was answering an urgent call from a GP, however it did not have its blue lights flashing as the call was not recorded as an emergency.
Frank Harradance, the county commander of the East Anglian Ambulance Service in Suffolk who was in charge of the incident, said that the ambulance had no patients on board at the time of the accident.
He stressed that accidents involving ambulances are not common in Suffolk, with only one in Newmarket having occurred so far this year.
"Considering the amount of miles we do, they are very rare," he said.
Both the police and the ambulance service have begun a full investigation into the exact circumstances of the crash.
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