ACCIDENTS claimed a heavy toll of casualties on the roads of the North-East over the weekend.

A teenage motorist was killed when the car he was driving veered off a road and struck two brick gateposts.

Lee Hutchinson was at the wheel of a white Vauxhall Corsa which left Thornley Road, 50 metres south of its junction with Barnard Avenue, in the village of Ludworth, between Durham and Peterlee.

Mr Hutchinson, 18, of Ruskin Crescent, in nearby Thornley, was cut free from the wreckage by firefighters, and taken by ambulance to Durham's University Hospital of North Durham, where he was certified dead.

A 19-year-old front passenger, from Ludworth, suffered what Durham Police described as minor injuries.

Investigators from the force's traffic unit are seeking information from witnesses to the accident, which happened at 2.25am on Saturday.

More than 30 floral tributes and sympathy cards were mounted on a fence alongside the accident scene by family and friends of Mr Hutchinson over the weekend.

Elsewhere, firefighters used cutting equipment to free a man trapped in his vehicle following a three-car crash on the A67 near Darlington last night.

Two cars and a taxi were involved in the collision, close to the Middleton St George turn-off, just after 5.30pm.

The injured man was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital by ambulance.

It was not known how badly hurt he was.

In one of several motorcycle accidents, a rider suffered fractures after losing control of her machine and colliding with a road sign and a wall.

The accident happened on the A68, at its junction with Butsfield Lane, two miles south of Castleside, north-west Durham.

The victim, who is being treated at the University Hospital of North Durham, was among a group of three riders.

Police have appealed for witnesses to the accident, at 4pm on Saturday, specifically the driver of a silver vehicle travelling south on the A68, which slowed as the motorcycle involved crossed the central white lines.

Any witnesses to either this or the fatal accident at Ludworth are asked to ring 0191-386 4929.

A motorcyclist suffered fractures after his Ducati collided with a Land Rover on the B6277 road, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, on Friday.