AN ELDERLY woman was rushed to hospital with a head injury after her car overturned on the A35 near Bridport.

Emergency services rushed to the scene shortly before 5pm today to reports of a single vehicle road traffic collision on the dual carriageway between Bridport and Winterbourne Abbas.

It is believed the car, a red Vauxhall Agila registered to a 75-year-old woman from Lyme Regis, was being driven towards Bridport when it left the road and overturned at Askerswell, near the Long Bredy Hut Lane Junction and then rolled.

Firefighters from Dorset Fire and Rescue Service were forced to cut the woman out of the car using hydraulic cutting equipment.

After she was rescued from the wreckage, she was then rushed to Dorset County Hospital by land ambulance with a head injury.

The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance was also called to the scene, but did not land and was stood down.

A spokesman for the South Western Ambulance Service said: “We were called to the incident on the A35 between Winterbourne Abbas and Bridport at 4.41pm on Wednesday.

“It was a single vehicle collision, and it appears that the one vehicle involved overturned and then rolled.

“There was one female patient trapped in the vehicle and on arrival, she was conscious but had quite a serious head injury.

“The air ambulance did attend but was stood down.

“After she was freed from the car by firefighters, she was then taken to Dorset County Hospital for further treatment."

Dorset Police said later the injuries are not as serious as first thought.

A spokesman for Dorset Fire and Rescue Service added: “We were requested to attend the incident around three miles east of Bridport by the ambulance service.

“Two fire appliances from Bridport and one from Dorchester attended, and crews used hydraulic cutting equipment to rescue the woman from the car.”

Dorset Police were forced to close the road from the Monkey’s Jump roundabout in Dorchester to the Askerswell junction on the A35 following the incident, as the car had overturned on the nearside lane of the carriageway.

Motorists faced lengthy tailbacks following the crash as the road was closed for more than an hour between Bridport and Winterbourne Abbas to allow for the recovery of the vehicle, and to clear the debris away from the road.

Police managed to reopen one lane of the road around 90 minutes after the incident, but the rest of the dual carriageway was not reopened until 7.15pm.

A spokesman for Dorset Police added they would like to thank motorists for their patience during the road closure.