AN elderly couple were seriously hurt when their Rover car crashed into the traffic lights at the junction of Bacup Road and Queens Square in Rawtenstall town centre.

They were both flung against the windscreen.

The driver Douglas Haslam, 81, suffered serious facial injuries and had to be cut free from the wreckage by firefighters.

His wife, Kathleen, 73, sustained serious chest and head injuries.

The couple, from Rawtenstall, were taken to Bury General Hospital, where today they were described as very poorly.

No other vehicle is thought to have been involved in the accident, which happened at 2.40pm yesterday.

The roads were partially blocked for about an hour causing heavy congestion.

Leading firefighter Andy Sasimowicz said: "The man and woman were trapped when their car went into traffic lights on the central reservation. "They were stabilised by paramedics as we used use cutting equipment to give them more room in which to work.

"It took us about twenty minutes and it looked as though they had suffered head injuries from impact with the windscreen."

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