Five teenagers in hospital after horror smash

FIVE teenagers have been rushed to hospital after a horror smash in the early hours of this morning.

• The car somersaulted and landed in a ditch

The vehicle, with three male and two female occupants, was travelling east on the A1 when the driver lost control of the car on a slip road. They had to be cut free by a fire crew.

Emergency services said the green Peugeot 206 came off the road and "somersaulted" into a ditch near to the Tranent turn-off at around 3.30am.

Fire crews used cutting gear to free the trapped female driver and male passenger, who were suffering from serious injuries, as the vehicle lay on its side in a field.

Five ambulances and a specialist trauma team rushed to the scene and took three injured patients on spine boards to the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, arriving at the city hospital by 5am.

The two most seriously injured passengers suffered multiple fractures and were treated in hospital this morning. Police said their injuries were very serious but not life threatening.

Two passengers who were walking wounded were also taken to the ERI by ambulance, a spokeswoman for the ambulance service said.

This morning pieces of the vehicle had been strewn across the nearby field and the roof lay separate from the car.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue said: "We attended a road traffic incident near Dolphingstone around 3.30am where a car had lost control coming off a slip road.

"It somersaulted and landed in a ditch.

"The car had five teenage occupants, three male and two female, and had been travelling on the A1 when it happened."