Emergency services have closed The Downs near to Downend as a result of a serious road traffic collision involving at least 2 cars this afternoon (Sunday).
Fire crews, paramedics and Police are all on scene alongside Coastguard Rescue 175 helicopter, which has landed in a nearby field.
A Volvo and a Suzuki have collided head-on, resulting in at least 1 person becoming trapped inside their vehicle.
It’s understood a third car has also been involved in the crash, which has taken place between Newport Shute and Downend.
Firefighters from Newport, Ryde and Shanklin are working to free the occupant of the Volvo using specialist cutting equipment. The Rescue Tender from Newport has been mobilised to the crash to assist the extrication efforts.
Coastguard Rescue Officers are in attendance at the scene as they were passing through the area.
The road is expected to remain closed for several hours.
UPDATE @ 15:10– The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance has now landed beside the Coastguard helicopter, further indicating the severity of the injuries sustained.
Island Echo is told by Police that 1 male has suffered potentially life threatening injuries, but they are still being assessed.
A second male has also sustained serious injuries.
UPDATE @ 15:45 – The Downs is expected to remain closed until late tonight as specialist investigators from the mainland-based Collision Investigation Unit have been called to examine the crash scene.
Police have implemented road closures at Newport Shute, Duxmore Farm and at the traffic light junction outside The Hare and Hounds public house.
UPDATE @ 16:02 – The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance has now left the scene, but has not been required to convey any patients to a mainland hospital.
Coastguard Rescue 175 has relocated to St Mary’s Hospital, Newport having airlifted 1 patient – the driver of the Volvo.
UPDATE @ 21:35 – Hampshire Constabulary are now appealing for witnesses to this afternoon’s crash.
Read more at https://www.islandecho.co.uk/police-appeal-for-witnesses-after-3-car-crash-on-the-downs/.
Gosh I hope all are able to be saved. So busy this bank holiday, worse than most others. How awful to come for a holiday if this happens. Looks to be very serious.
Very busy roads on this Island now. We moved here for peace and a quiet life, now even the country lanes are just race tracks for the impatient growing amount of idiot drivers, who overtake in the most unsafe way, relying on luck, not judgement to avoid this sort of thing.
One hopes no innocent party suffers this time.
This ruins lives, and cost the country a fortune in hospital bills, and fees for the emergency services.
Think we need more hidden cameras rather than relying on the public to provide dubious evidence of manic driving. ANY roadside hidden camera would fill the court for a week now.
Ironically Island Roads have helped the situation, as their slow process of repairing roads means many are still riddled with damage slowing ‘some’ drivers down.
Can’t imagine what our roads will be like when the massive ruination of Ryde occurs, best get the developers to fund a new enlarged A&E FIRST. Could call it the P E N N Y F E A T H E R ward.
Makes me laugh when overners move here and then complain about the place.
Whats more ironic is complaining about overcrowding and new developnents when it would be less overcrowded if they hadn’t moved here.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not against it but I find it highly amusing. It seems people that move here complain the most.
So so true.
There are no speed cameras anywhere on the Island.
So many Roads require SPEED humps etc.
Whoever is responsible for the roads on the Island have no idea of SAFETY.
Totally shocking.
Anyone overtaking should be punished, even when you are at the limit driving along
Backward idiots are always touching ones BUMPER.
We were walking on the downs at the time and one casualty was definitely taken aboard the coastguard helicopter.
yup standard island driving
What a stupid comment…put your brain into gear before commenting you Muppet!
Where in the story does it mention overtaking or bikes?
Did you see it happen?
If not, explain why you wrote that.
I have never seen such lunatic driving on the island today for a long time, I have no idea why this is happening.
This afternoon I drove from Knighton towards Newchurch when an enormous tractor with a very long trailer came towards me at speed with no intention of slowing down.
It’s a very narrow lane with few pull in points, i could go nowhere because of the size of the tractor, I was about to exit my car and run when suddenly the tractor driver stopped.
I was close to suffering a panic attack, however i reversed back to the start of the lane to allow the tractor driver to get on it’s way .
That driver must have been in a very bad mood, even the child he had in the tractor with him looked alarmed.
I still feel very stressed at the moment..
Be very careful out there because there are a lot of mad people.
So many hillbillys on the Island driving
should you be driving truth? You should expect the unexpected on every corner not have a panic attack when you see a tractor on a farm lane.
Bloody hell Bob, your reply to Truth is rather harsh. Yes, I was taught to anticipate and be aware of other road users but you think a farmer living on the island would have more sense than to bomb around narrow lanes…. the again, maybe not!!!! SLOW DOWN. SPEEDING KILLS.
It wasn’t on a farm lane! It was on a public highway!, and believe me when I say that driver appeared that he intended to drive his tractor on top of me…
Had you been in my car at the time, even you would have had a panic attack. I’m not joking, it was real..
Truth, I have seen likely the same tractor driver. These are carting green waste to the bio-digester at Arreton. Check the skid marks on the roads they most use, as I have seen the same manic driving from such.
The whole bio digester is a con, and now farmers are growing ever more for such, rather than growing food crops as it is heavily subsidised by the EU, and the UK hell bent on upping it’s green target status will keep this despite it using massive amounts of diesel to get the crops from field to digester.
Also farmer are certain of the price they will ‘get’ for their crops, and have no fussy supermarkets ripping them off, and the farmers don’t need expensive pest control or foreign pickers to harvest the crop as it is done by a huge machine which chops it off near ground level before being dumped into the trailer and hauled by a massive tractor which you met.
A massive con, but, as Government can tick off ‘green’ credentials then it carries on.
Think it was ‘sold off’ the bio unit to a German company when we voted out of the EU to ensure the subsidise keep coming once we are out.
So true, always be prepared for the unexpected, horses, cyclists, walkers, broken down cars etc, you just never know whats around the corner
I was taking my lad out on a driving lesson the other week and some idiot in a John Deer did the same to us just out side Whitwell. Didn’t slow down at all. My lad did well to avoid him, nearly pushed us in the hedge.
Something must be done about the amount of bad drivers on the island, it’s about to become an epidemic.
It’s costing lives and if the powers that be don’t do something soon more people will die, something must be done soon..
Life is cheap when it comes to lousy drivers on this island, Do Something About It..
Please don’t comment unless you know what happened think of the injured and their families.
Get your facts right as it had nothing to do with bikes. As you don’t know how and why it happened I suggest you keep your comments to yourself
Totally agree Steve. I hope all involved recover soon. If you weren’t there then don’t bloody comment….very simple! Got something negative to say then talk to a wall.
We can all probably hazard a guess in our minds what happened here, head on collision and three cars, but this is unhelpful speculation. Best let investigators do their analysis and assess witness statements to determine both cause and blame.
Instead of making judgemental comments let the investigators do their job and find out what went wrong and I feel sorry for all those involved Hope everyone gets better soon
Why are people always in a rush and end up speeding? Slow down, chill, this is the IOW. Sounds very much like an overtake had gone horribly wrong. Hope the innocent parties are ok.
As i was always told better 5minutes late in this world than 5 minutes early in the next one.