An 82-year-old woman died and a motorcyclist was critically injured in two separate collisions on Craven’s roads.

Margaret Taylor, who was from Micklethwaite, near Bingley, was killed in a two-vehicle crash on the A59 near Bolton Abbey on Friday. It is believed she was returning home from an outing in Bolton Abbey.

The crash occurred near Hambleton Garage at 2.50pm and Mrs Taylor was a front seat passenger in a small white car that had been travelling towards Skipton in a long line of traffic.

It was in a head-on collision with a green 4x4 pick-up truck pulling a sheep trailer that was heading in the opposite direction towards Bolton Abbey.

Mrs Taylor was pronounced dead at the scene and the female driver was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary with serious injuries.

Both had to be cut from the wreckage by local firefighters.

The two male occupants in the 4x4 suffered facial injuries and were taken by ambulance to Airedale Hospital for treatment.

About 20 sheep from the trailer required rounding up and were placed in another trailer.

The A59 was closed for several hours to allow the police to investigate the scene and recover the vehicles.

And police are investigating a second serious accident which left a 47-year-old motorcyclist with life-threatening injuries and closed the A65 Settle Bypass on Thursday morning.

The rider, believed to be a local paramedic, was airlifted to Leeds General Infirmary after his BMW motorbike was in collision with a Hyundai Getz near the junction with Brackenber Lane, Giggleswick at 7.50am.

His condition was yesterday (Wednesday) described as critical but stable.

The occupant of the car was freed from the wreckage by firefighters and was taken to hospital by road ambulance, with suspected neck and back injuries.

Road diversions were put in place while a forensic team investigated the scene.

Witnesses to either crash or anyone with information are asked to contact the road policing unit at Skipton via the non-emergency number 101.