A SERIES of crashes throughout Worcestershire and Herefordshire during rush hour traffic has prompted warnings of black ice on the roads.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said the first call came in at 7.55am on the Bromyard to Tenbury Road about a mile outside Bromyard where a 4x4 vehicle was reportedly in a ditch.

A local doctor was passing and stopped to offer assistance until an ambulance arrived and a man in his 50s was taken to Hereford County Hospital with a shoulder injury.

At 8.07am, staff were called to the A4410 at the turning for Dilwyn where a car had left the road.

A woman in her 20s had suffered minor injuries and was taken to Hereford County Hospital as a precaution.

At 8.17am, crews attended Nunnery Wood High School, Spetchley Road, Worcester, where a car had been in collision with a teenage boy.

The ambulance crew immobilised the 13-year-old, who was conscious but suffering from a head injury, using a neck collar and spinal board before taking him to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

At 8.23am, crews were called to Peterchurch, one mile from the Nags Head, where a minibus and a 4x4 vehicle pulling a trailer were in collision, leaving the 4x4 on its side.

Three patients were checked over at the scene but did not require hospital treatment.

Just four minutes later at 8.27am an ambulance attended an incident at Romsley Hill near Farley Lane where a car had left the road suffering considerable damage.

An ambulance attended and took a man in his 40s, suffering minor injuries, to the Alexandra Hospital as a precaution.

At 8.29am, crews were called to reports of a car in a hedge on the B4361 Leominster to Luston road close to Nordan Hall. The woman driver, who was in her 30s, had back pain but had managed to get out of the car.

While the paramedic on the response vehicle was there, a second accident occurred at the same location but no-one required hospital treatment.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "Conditions are clearly very difficult in a number of locations across the two counties this morning.

"It is vital the drivers assess the conditions before they set off and bear in mind that there could be black ice at this time of year."