A MINOR accident on busy trunk road caused traffic tailbacks when a patient transport ambulance passing by broke down with smoke coming from its engine this morning.
A woman was taken to hospital with a minor injury following the crash between a Ford Focus and heavy goods vehicle on the A693 at the roundabout with Perkinsville and Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, at about 9am.
While emergency services were dealing with the accident the driver of a patient transport vehicle passing by noticed smoke coming from his engine. Fearing his vehicle was catching fire he called the fire brigade.
But by the time the brigade arrived the smoke had died down.
A Durham Police spokesman said: “At about 9am officers attended a road traffic accident on the A693 at its junction with Ouston Lane.
“A Ford Focus had collided with a lorry.”
A spokesman for the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were called to the A693 to reports of an ambulance on fire at about 9.40am. It was a false alarm with good intent.”
A spokesman for the North East Ambulance Service said a woman, who was an occupant of the car, was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham with an injured finger.
The road was cleared at 10.30am.
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