Motorcycle rider airlifted to hospital after serious coast road crash

The crash happened on the B3157 coast road near Portesham last night.

The road was closed between Weymouth and Bridport for several hours while emergency crews worked at the scene, treating patients, recovering vehicles and examining the road as part of a collision investigation.

A local road closure was also in place in Abbotsbury.

Dorset Police and South Western Ambulance service paramedics were alerted around 6.20pm to the crash which happened about half a mile east of Portesham.

The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance was also requested once it was ascertained the injured rider needed to be evacuated to hospital in Southampton for specialist treatment.

A Dorset Police spokesman said: "We were called to to reports of an collision between a Suzuki Alto and a Honda motorcycle on the B3157 at Portesham.

"The rider of the Honda motorcycle was thrown from her bike and into the side of an Iveco van and then a Volvo car, which were travelling along the road at the time of the collision.

"The rider of the motorcyclist, a woman aged in her 40s from Farnham in Surrey, sustained multiple fractures to her leg and a fracture to her spine. "She was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital with serious injuries."

Police said the Suzuki driver, a man in his 30s from Weymouth, sustained injuries which are not believed to be life threatening.

A spokesman for South Western Ambulance Service said: "We were called at 6.18pm to reports of a road traffic collision.

"We attended with two ambulances, two rapid response vehicles and an air ambulance.

"Two patients were taken to hospital. One patient was taken to Southampton General Hospital via air ambulance with reports of a leg injury and a patient was taken to Dorset County Hospital via land ambulance."

The road was reopened at 1am.

Witnesses and anyone with information is asked to call Dorset Police on 101, quoting incident number 5-435.