A MAN was airlifted to hospital after being badly injured in the second of two accidents on the A64, which sparked calls for urgent safety improvements.

Firefighters cut the casualty free from the cab of a bin lorry after it collided with a tractor and trailer on the dual carriageway near Tadcaster at about 11.50am yesterday, causing the trailer to overturn.

He was flown to Leeds General Infirmary by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, suffering from serious leg injuries.

Two other people in the cab did not need to go to hospital, said the Yorkshire Ambulance Service. The road was blocked for several hours.

The accident happened less than four hours after two cars and a van were involved in a crash at Bilbrough Top, between Tadcaster and York, which left the westbound carriageway blocked.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said the crash at just after 8.10am involved three vehicles – a Ford Transit van, a Volkswagen Passat and a Renault Megane – and that one person had to be cut out of their car, but North Yorkshire Police said that nobody had been seriously injured.

The accident, which happened less than 100 metres from the scene of a fatal crash in late 2012, and close to where a pedestrian was killed last November, prompted fresh calls from the council to the Highways Agency and North Yorkshire Police to attend a meeting to consider ways in which safety could be improved at Bilbrough Top.

Local district councillor Richard Musgrave said: “I simply cannot accept that the number of accidents on this particular stretch of road have all been a coincidence.

“That’s why I would like all of the options to be considered so that we can work together to make the road safer, both for drivers and pedestrians. My view remains that the piece of road in question should be a 50mph zone.”

Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams said he had written to the police and the Highways Agency to call for a meeting: “We all need to sit down around a table and take a look at all the factors – the bends, the camber, the road layout, the speed of vehicles – to see what needs to be done.”

Later, there was a third accident on the A64, near to the A659 Junction.