Tameside Report & Glossop Chronicle

A YOUNG woman was given oxygen therapy at the roadside after a head- on crash closed the Snake Pass.

The casualty - an 18-year-old from Sheffield -was seriously injured in the collision.

The accident occurred near a bad bend overlooking Glossop Golf Club, two miles from the town centre.

It’s believed she was driving one of the cars.

Two other people were injured, but it’s not thought they were badly hurt.

Whitfield Park firefighters had raced to the scene around 5.50pm on Tuesday, not realising what lay ahead.

The call out was reported as a routine ‘make sure’, clearing up after an accident.

But instead, firefighters found that two vehicles, a red VW and a black Toyota had crashed head on.

A Glossop fire spokeman said: “We saw a woman lying at the side of the road.

“There was a police car there, but the ambulance had not arrived. So we treated her and gave her oxygen.”

The crews were helped by an off-duty emergency nurse, who was on the pass and stopped to assist.

Three ambulances were called, two land crews from Greater Manchester and an air ambulance.

The helicopter landed on the golf course, but the casualty, who was in the Toyota, was taken to Tameside Hospital by land ambulance.

So much diesel was on the road, that Glossop fire chiefs called the Highways Agency for a massive clean-up.

The operation closed the pass for over an hour, with scores of vehicles stretching back for more than a mile on the Sheffield side of the summit.

When the road was finally opened at around 7.15pm, a stready stream of vehicles poured off the Snake and down Sheffield Road into Glossop.

Speaking yesterday (Wednesday), a police spokesman described the woman’s injuries as ‘serious, but not life-threatening’.