A health trust today apologised to a mother after an ambulance took almost two hours to take an injured girl to hospital after it was misdirected to the scene of the accident by its satellite navigation system.

Chloe Banks, 10, was left lying in the road for almost an hour waiting for an ambulance after a car hit her.

The emergency vehicle was guided by the hi-tech satellite navigation system to a street too narrow for it to negotiate.

After backtracking and finally reaching the accident scene, the crew then took a further 40 minutes to get Chloe to hospital after the dashboard computer system sent them along country lanes instead of an A-road - a much quicker route.

The North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust said it regretted the incident and apologised to the girls mother, Maggie Banks, but blamed the delay on the ambulance crew being unfamiliar with the local area.

A spokesman for the trust stressed that Chloes life was not in danger as a rapid response paramedic was at the scene within six minutes of her accident being reported.

However, Mrs Banks, 39, questioned the necessity for the emergency services to rely on sat-nav systems.

She said: Chloe was lying on the ground, vomiting and bleeding, and she kept saying to me Mum, am I going to die?, she told The Journal.

We had to wait almost an hour for the ambulance to come and take her...

I thought then we would go straight to the QE (Queen Elizabeth), but they went round Rowlands Gill and Swalwell. We told them it wasnt the quickest way to go.

The driver was really apologetic, but he said he had to go from the satellite navigation system.

Chloe was knocked down as she played outside a skate park in the village of Greenside, near Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, at 1.30pm on April 21.

With no ambulance crews available in Gateshead, a crew was sent from Sunderland but had to drop off a patient in Newcastle first.

That crew was delayed when the satellite navigation system guided them to a narrow road in nearby Ryton, which they were unable to negotiate, forcing them to be manually guided by A and E control - eventually arriving at the scene at 2.26pm.

The crew took a further 40 minutes to get to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead after the satellite navigation system directed them around Rowlands Gill, High Spen and Swalwell, instead of a more direct route down the A695.

The girl finally arrived at hospital at 3.20pm.

A spokesman for North East Ambulance Service said the delay was down to the crews unfamiliarity with the area.

We obviously understand Mrs Banks concerns and we apologise for any distress caused by the delay in the ambulance, he said.

The spokesman said a paramedic was on the scene within six minutes of the 999 call being made.

The accident was categorised as a category B accident - serious not life- threatening, he said.

The national standard is that these calls have to be answered within 19 minutes. The rapid response paramedic carries everything in his car that an emergency ambulance has. What he cant do is transport a patient to hospital.

The reason for the delay in the ambulance arriving at the scene is that the crew, which had travelled from Sunderland, did not know the area.

Crews are frequently reminded that satellite navigation systems are an aid and should not be relied upon.

He said the sat-nav system had guided the ambulance crew almost to the scene of the accident - so close the paramedic could see the ambulance - but the vehicle could not negotiate a narrow road.

Instead the crew contacted the control room and they guided the ambulance to the crash scene, he added.