A DRIVER suffered “life threatening” injuries and became trapped in his car after crashing into a tree on a long winding hill near Marlow on Friday.

Emergency crews were called to Marlow Road, near Bisham, at around 2.50pm on Friday after a green Peugeot 106 collided with the tree by the roadside.

Firefighters from Marlow and Maidenhead had to cut the man free from the vehicle using hydraulic rescue equipment before he was taken to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

South Central Ambulance Service has described his injuries as “life threatening”.

Richard Boast, Watch Manager at Marlow Fire Station, said: “He was trapped in his car and we had to release him before ambulance crews could try to stabilise him.

“The police closed the road while we were there as the car did not leave the carriageway after it hit the tree.

“He was lucky the car hit a tree and did not go off the road as there is a steep embankment below. That would have made our job a lot more difficult.”

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, the sister service to Thames Valley and Chiltern, attended the crash but did not take the man to hospital.

Police closed the road and the emergency services were at the scene for around two hours, with the vehicle finally recovered at 5pm.

There was no one else in the car at the time of the collision, and no other vehicles were involved in the crash on the single carriageway hill.

The road, which links Marlow with the northern side of Maidenhead, has a series of steep bends on the descent towards the A404 Marlow Bypass.

Emergency services have been unable to confirm the man’s current condition.