Police are appealing for witnesses after a woman died following a serious crash which closed a major Lancashire link road for more than eight hours. 

Emergency services were called around 1pm on Wednesday to a report of a two-vehicle accident on the Bay Gateway near Lancaster.

A Honda Jazz and a BMW M5 had been involved in a crash with the Honda overturning.

A passenger in the Honda, a 74-year-old woman from Heysham, suffered serious injuries.

She was taken to Royal Preston Hospital but sadly died later that day.

The driver of the Honda, an 82-year-old woman from Morecambe, suffered hip and facial injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment, with a third woman, aged 80 and from Morecambe, suffering minor injuries.

The driver of the BMW, a man in his 50s from Heysham, also sustained minor injuries, with a passenger in the car, a woman in her 30s, also from Heysham, treated for whiplash.

Following further enquiries officers received information a third vehicle, a BMW, was possibly involved in the incident with the driver failing to stop at the scene.

A 31-year-old man from the Isle of Man was later arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving after the BMW was recovered by officers in the Nottinghamshire area.

He remains in custody

Sgt Phil Baxendale, of the tactical operations unit, said: “These are very sad and tragic circumstances and my thoughts are with the family of the woman involved at this time.

“We are appealing for information and urging any witnesses to come forward.

"There were a number of vehicles travelling close to the incident at the time and although several drivers stopped to speak to us, there are others that may have dashcam footage leading up to the collision which may prove vital to the investigation, so we are asking those to get in touch as well.

“We believe a third vehicle, a BMW, was possibly involved in the incident and we are particularly interested in speaking to anyone who might information about this, including the driving manner of the vehicles described.”

Anyone with information can contact police on 101 or email 2957@lancashire.police.uk quoting log 0625 of August 4.