FOUR people were killed in another weekend of tragedy on the region's roads.

The latest accidents come only a week after a North Yorkshire couple were killed when their car veered into a lorry.

Six-months pregnant Suzie Baldwin, 29, and her husband Adrian, 34, from Romanby, Northallerton, died instantly in the head-on crash near Hurworth Place, Darlington.

The first accident this weekend happened on Saturday morning.

A soldier was killed and four people injured when a car crashed into a tree at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.

The soldier has not yet been named and an Army spokesman said last night officers were still trying to trace his family.

The crash, which involved a blue Rover 200, happened in Plumer Road, just before 10.15am.

Paramedics tried to revive the 18-year-old soldier, a front seat passenger, who was from the Liverpool area, but he was pronounced dead at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.

Three other passengers were taken to the Friarage - a 20-year-old man with face and leg injuries, a 17-year-old girl with a hand injury plus bruising to her hip and elbow, and a 27-year-old woman with back injuries and a fractured jaw. The male driver of the car was arrested and taken to Northallerton police station. Police said last night he was no longer in custody.

He was treated at the Friarage for minor injuries.

In Newcastle, a driver and passenger were killed when their car was in collision with two oncoming vehicles, just after 5pm on Saturday.

The passenger who died was named yesterday as Philip Joseph James, 23, of East Boldon, South Tyneside.

The driver was not named, but was said to be aged 21 and from the Newcastle area.

A 54-year-old woman driver of one of the other vehicles involved had to be cut free and was taken to hospital with head and chest injuries.

A man in his 20s, who was a passenger in one of the cars, escaped with minor injuries.

Later that night, a Vauxhall Cavalier went out of control and collided with trees in South Shields, killing passenger Keith Wealands, 22, of South Shields.

Sergeant Steve Pick, of Northumbria Police, said: "It's unusual for us to have so many accidents of such severity, so close together. We would like to take the opportunity to urge drivers to take extra care."

Sergeant Brian Trickett, from North Yorkshire Police, said the cause of the crash at Catterick was still being investigated.

"For some reason, the car has gone out of control and hit the tree," he said. "There were no other vehicles involved."