A TEENAGE girl died and a 20-year-old man lost an arm in a black weekend on the region's road.

Rear seat passenger Lynsey Richards, who lived near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, had to be cut free from the wreckage of a red Vauxhall Nova which collided with a taxi near Crook, just before 11.30pm on Friday.

The 17-year-old, from Snowdrop Way, Etherley Dene, suffered serious internal injuries and was later certified dead at the University Hospital of North Durham.

Three other young people in the car escaped with minor injuries, including the 18-year-old driver, who was breathalysed in accordance with normal police procedure.

Police said the driver, who is from Hamsterley Colliery, near Consett, had lost control of the Nova on a bend on the A689, known as New Road, near the Woolff Lyndsay Carpet Mills, as he drove towards Howden-le-Wear.

They said there was a massive impact when the car crossed the road into the path of a blue Rover taxi, which was travelling towards Crook. The taxi's 37-year-old driver, who lives in Crook, was not seriously hurt.

Both the Nova driver and another rear seat passenger, an 18-year-old man from Sunnybrow, near Crook, were detained in the University Hospital.

The front seat passenger, a 16-year-old girl, also from Etherley Dene, was released after treatment. The road was closed until 3am.

Less than an hour after the Crook tragedy, at 12.15am on Saturday, a 20-year-old man from Catchgate, near Consett, lost an arm when a car crashed into a tree.

The man, a front seat passenger, also broke his left thigh bone when the red Vauxhall Cavalier, travelling along Brooms Lane towards Stoney Heap apparently lost control on a right hand bend.

The car's driver, who is 18 and lives in Catchgate, escaped with cuts and bruises, but another 18-year-old travelling in the back broke his left leg.

Police accident investigators appealed for witnesses to both accidents to contact them on 0191-386 4929.