A NORTH Yorkshire mother and two daughters who were involved in a serious head on crash are set to appear on Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s reality series Helicopter ER next week.

In December 2020, Maura Jones, her two daughters and family dog from Rathmell near Settle, were in the car on the way home on the A682 near Hellifield.

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The family saw headlights on the wrong side of the road and suddenly crashed head on with an oncoming vehicle.

Ms Jones said: “We were driving home in the evening so it was dark and we came across a slight dip in the road.

“It wasn’t until I got to the top of the hill that I saw the car lights on the wrong side of the road. There wasn’t time to do anything.

I just remember screaming, the sound of the crash, and the noise and we went backwards and hit the wall.”

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance were dispatched immediately to the scene, and due to the incident happening in the dark, the mission was flown using Night Vision technology.

The Critical Care Team treated Maura and her two daughters aged 13 and 23. Due to her serious injuries, Maura was flown to Leeds General Infirmary and her daughters were taken to Airedale hospital by a land ambulance.

The family dog, who was flung from the car boot, was rescued by bystanders from a nearby field.

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Ms Jones added: “My first thought was is everybody okay, all sorts of scary thoughts were going through my head. I could tell my face was bleeding and I had glass in my mouth. My chest also really hurt.”

“I felt terrified when I was separated from the girls because I knew they were going off in the road ambulance seeing their mum badly hurt in an air ambulance.”

Tests at Leeds General Infirmary revealed tat Maura had broken 10 ribs, her sternum and ankle and she suffered a small vertebrae fracture and muscular pain.

Her daughters also both required hospital treatment and suffered from shock and emotional distress following the incident. Luckily the family dog only had a few cuts from the crash.

Maura reportedly had a three night hospital stay and her recovery has been challenging. The air ambulance say she still has flashbacks of that day when driving and suffers from stiffness and pain in her ankles.

She added: “Having the air ambulance where we live, as remotely as we do out here, is an amazing facility and an absolute god send. It got me to hospital in approximately 20 minutes, when the journey by road would have been double.

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“I know we’ve been lucky when I think what the other outcome could have been, we’re all still here, and we’re all together and still strong as a family. I feel very grateful.”

The episode of Helicopter ER which will be shown on Channel Really at 10pm on Tuesday October 5 also features a biker injured in Beverley and a woman who had a medical episode in Ripon.

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