A MOTHER and her daughter died and a baby was today fighting for his life in hospital after a horror road crash in East Yorkshire.

Double tragedy struck on the A1079 near Pocklington, when a car left a dual carriageway and careered into a tree.

As a probe was launched into what caused the crash half a mile south of Hayton, officers said today that the victims' relatives in Hull had been given the devastating news.

Police at the accident scene said the force of the single vehicle collision, which happened just before 2pm yesterday, had left the Ford Fiesta a "write off".

Inspector Richard Cockerline, of Humberside Police, said the 29-year-old driver and her six-year-old daughter were confirmed dead at the scene.

A police helicopter was scrambled from RAF Leconfield, near Beverley, to fly the driver's critically injured 13-month-old son to Hull Royal Infirmary with "significant and life-threatening" head injuries.

The little boy's condition was today "critical but stable", Humberside Police said.

Insp Cockerline said one witness had already come forward who is understood to have been travelling behind the Fiesta moments before the crash.

But he urged anyone who may have seen the silver-coloured vehicle before to phone Beverley Police Station on 01482 597802.

The accident happened on a slight left-hand bend, outside Hayton, just as the A1079 becomes a stretch of dual carriageway.

The crash left the mangled Fiesta - which tore wood off the tree in the collision - half on a central grass embankment and half on the right lane of the carriageway.

Insp Cockerline could not confirm how the car had left the road, but at this stage in the inquiry he ruled out speed playing a part on the 70mph road, where he said drivers were regularly caught travelling in excess of 100mph.

A man working at a nearby garage said the road where the crash happened was the only section of dual carriageway between the outskirts of York and Beverley.

But he said that it was "not a bad road in terms of accidents". Yesterday's accident closed the southbound A1079 York to Hull road, between Hayton and Shiptonthorpe, until about 6pm.

Traffic was diverted on to minor roads, causing tailbacks in the evening rush-hour as workers made their way home.

Updated: 10:08 Thursday, March 10, 2005