The crash happened just before 7.30am on Tuesday morning between a Ford Fiesta car and a van. There were two people travelling in each vehicle.

Although the men's injuries were deemed "serious" by a police spokesman they are not thought to be a life threatening with one motorist suffering a broken leg.

Two fire engines from Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay, police, two ambulances and a rapid response vehicle were all called to the scene.

One man was taken to Scarborough District Hospital by ambulance. Another was cut out of the wreckage of the Fiesta by firefighters and airlifted by Yorkshire Air Ambulance to James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. He suffered abdominable injuries and leg injuries according to a Whitby Fire Brigade spokesman.

The road was closed with traffic diverted away from the scene.

One eye witness told the Gazette: "It was a head on crash between the van and the car.

"Firefighters spent quite a long time cutting one of the drivers out of the Fiesta. The other people involved were walking wounded."