A WOMAN had to be cut out of a vehicle and five people were hospitalised after a serious two-vehicle collision on the north coast on Thursday evening.
Two people remained in a critical condition in Coleraine's Causeway Hospital yesterday and one man was transferred to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry where he is in a `comfortable' condition.
The crash came as a man in his 70s was found dead in a car which crashed into a garden in Co Down.
Investigators are exploring the possibility that the man may have died before the collision.
A post mortem examination was yesterday being carried out on the pensioner's body after it was removed from the Citroen C3 car which crashed on the Comber Road between Lisburn and Carryduff.
The ambulance service was called after the collision which happened at around 7.30pm on Thursday and paramedics found the driver trapped in the vehicle.
He was confirmed dead at the scene.
Meanwhile three fire appliances and two rapid response teams were tasked to the scene of the collision near Portrush, a spokesman for the Fire and Rescue Service said.
Emergency services said they received a call "to a report of a two-vehicle road traffic collision at the Dunluce Road area of Coleraine".
Two appliances from Portrush Fire Station and one from Coleraine Fire Station were sent to the scene.
"Firefighters using thermal imaging cameras, hydraulic cutting equipment and spinal boards extricated a woman from one of the vehicles," he said.
"She was taken to a nearby hospital for her injuries. Two men from the second car were out upon arrival of NIFRS, with the other two men extricated by firefighters.
"All of the men were taken to a nearby hospital (Causeway) following the incident. Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service finished at the scene at 8.15pm."
Two people have since been discharged, while another person has been transferred to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.
