A female motorist has died in hospital four days after being seriously injured in a collision with a lorry.

Police today named the dead woman as 24-year-old Denae Mills, of Berwick Court, Trimdon Grange, County Durham.

She was cut free from her damaged Vauxhall Astra and air-lifted from the scene of the crash, on the A181 near Wheatley Hill, in east Durham, last Tuesday.

Her car was involved in a collision with a Mercedes flatbed truck which was turning right at the junction with Cemetery Road, leading from Wheatley Hill onto the A181.

Police said Ms Mills was flown by ambulance helicopter to Middlesbrough General Hospital, but she failed to regain consciousness and died in the intensive care unit on Saturday lunch-time.

Durham Police said that the Middlesbrough coroners' officer has been informed of the death and inquest proceedings will open in the next few days.

The lorry driver, a 43-year-old Teesside man, was not said to have suffered injuries in the incident.

Accident investigators from the force's traffic unit have renewed appeals to witnesses to the crash, which took place at around 9.20am last Tuesday.

Anyone with information is asked to ring 0191-386 4929.