AN extraordinary row has broken out between North-East ambulance chiefs over a five-vehicle pile-up that left a young mother fighting for her life.

Grahame Pickering, chief executive of the Great North Air Ambulance (GNAA) charity, launched a blistering attack over the decision not to call in air support to the accident on the A66.

Mr Pickering claimed the decision by Tees East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service (TENYAS) had put lives at risk.

And he accused the service of negligence in not calling in their helicopter, based at Teesside Airport, only 15 miles away.

The GNAA chopper could have been at the scene within seven minutes, he said.

Instead, the injured were taken to hospital by road.

The crash, near the East Layton junction, west of Scotch Corner, left a mother in a critical condition after her Ford Escort was involved in an accident with a lorry and three other cars.

Carole Angela Scott, 20, of Ravensworth, North Yorkshire, was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital and later transferred to the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

Her 11-month-old daughter Catriona suffered a broken arm and motorist Barry Watson, 26, from Dumbarton, in Scotland, was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital where his condition is serious.

The two services are at logger-heads over fundraising by GNAA for a permanent Teesside-based helicopter.

GNAA chiefs have ruffled official feathers by seeking funds for their helicopter in North Yorkshire. TENYAS already operates its own charity-financed helicopter from Leeds-Bradford Airport and says the GNAA fundraisers are poaching.

Last night, relations between the two appeared to have reached an all-time low.

Mr Pickering said his helicopter should have been called in immediately after the A66 accident. "We didn't have a clue," he said. "I am absolutely fuming, because to me this just appears to be negligence.

"The air ambulance was sat at Teesside Airport, and could have been there in seven minutes, the first on the scene, but it wasn't used. It doesn't add up, it was the sort of serious situation that the air ambulance is there for."

TENYAS immediately hit back. A spokesman said: "We decide who attends reported incidents. We have a protocol for the deployment of air ambulances and we decide when to activate them."

And Trevor Molton, chief executive of TENYAS, criticised moves by GNAA to raise money in North Yorkshire, labelling it "entirely inappropriate." He said: "While there is of necessity an overlap of air ambulance operational areas - to provide the nearest available life saving resource - it is entirely inappropriate for GNAA to be operating in our charity's operational area. "We shall be writing to their chief executive to tell them that."

On Monday, GNAA began a month-long trial that will provide the North-East with its second medical helicopter - based at Teesside Airport - at a cost of £70,000.

The charity has another air ambulance, at Blyth, but the GNAA aims to raise £1m so the second helicopter can be based permanently at the airport, near Darlington.