Sisters aged 80 killed in Aberdeenshire crash

TWO sisters were killed and two other people left in a critical condition when their car smashed into a tree at the weekend.

Picture: Police Scotland

The 80-year-old women were back seat passengers in a silver Mitsubishi Shogun which careered off the A920 in Aberdeenshire on Sunday afternoon.

Police said they were pronounced dead at the scene.

The male driver, aged 74, and a 60-year-old front-seat passenger were taken to hospital. Their conditions were last night described as critical. Police have not yet revealed the identities of anyone involved.

Officers confirmed the elderly women were sisters.

One was from Gloucestershire while the other lived in Texas in the United States. The badly injured pair are a husband and wife from the Tarves area of Aberdeenshire.

A large piece of the tree trunk was torn off by the impact, with the front of the vehicle bearing the brunt of the collision.

Firefighters used cutting equipment to free the survivors from the wreckage of the 4x4 and they were taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary by ambulance.

A spokesman for the fire service said: “We deployed two appliances. We had 13 personnel at the location and they made the scene safe after releasing the casualties.”

Police immediately closed the road, and warned drivers it would remain shut for several hours.

Accident investigation officers arrived at the scene near the Meikle Wartle junction and took measurements and examined the road and the car.

The crash happened on a straight stretch of road. Traffic on the road had been busier than usual, due to the closure of the nearby A96 Aberdeen-Inverness route during resurfacing work.

That had led to long tailbacks, with delays of up to an hour, and a knock-on effect on other roads, including the A920.

Local councillor Jim Gifford, said: “This is an absolute tragedy, but unfortunately all too common.

“Aberdeenshire Council has recently launched Operation Cedar with the police, who say that every accident has some circumstances that could have been avoided.

“But that does not explain every circumstance, and hindsight is always a wonderful thing to have.”

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said of the injured couple: “The pair are still in a critical condition in intensive care.”