M62 crash: woman dead after hen party minibus collides with lorry An off-duty officer was the first person to report the accident and had stayed at the scene to help. Speaking at the scene Chief Inspector Mark Bownass, head of West Yorkshire Police's roads policing unit, said emergency services were called to a report of a collision between a large goods vehicle and a minibus from South Elmsall, near Pontefract. "We believe the minibus at this time was heading to a hen party in Liverpool," he said. Sadly within this accident there has been one fatality. He said one woman had died and other casualties had been taken to numerous local hospitals. PScene of the crash (PA) Police, firefighters, paramedics and at least six air ambulances were scrambled to the scene of the accident, which caused extensive travel chaos and tailbacks. Ambulance crews enacted major incident procedures while the Leeds General Infirmary major trauma centre was put on alert. Police said the incident had left the motorway closed in both directions and advised motorists to avoid the area. Motorists have been urged to use the M18 or M1 as the carriageway is not expected to reopen until this evening at the earliest. It remains unclear what provoked the crash as locals reported the area had been enjoying fine weather. Chartered accountant Pritpal Singh, 28, from Leeds was travelling back to his office on the M62 westbound when the accident happened. He said: "It was about 11.30am, I was going in the same direction as the accident, the westbound carriageway. It was effectively gridlocked from 11.30am onwards. By noon everyone had shut off their engines and started walking around on the road. By 2-2.30pm three quarters of the cars and lorries were empty. I was about a third of a mile back from where the accident was, I got out and walked up to the scene. He added: "There were probably about 10-15 ambulances, as many police cars, several fire engines. In the midst of all the emergency vehicles I could just about see the scene of the accident. I could see a minibus which was on its side. It had quite a severe amount of damage on the right hand side. A spokeswoman for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust said: "We received an emergency call at 11.31am today to reports of a serious collision between a mini-coach and an HGV at junction 32 of the M62, close to Castleford, West Yorkshire. Due to the scale of the incident we have enacted our major incident plan and dispatched a number of resources to the scene including ambulances, our hazardous area response team, doctors and air ambulance. Ambulance clinicians are providing treatment at the scene and are working closely with their emergency service colleagues. At this time the number of patients is unknown. The Great North Air Ambulance Service confirmed that two of its helicopters have been sent to the scene from Cumbria and County Durham. Kevin Hodgson, its director of operations, said they had sent two air ambulances, which were joined by two from North West Air Ambulance and another two from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance. He said one helicopter had already landed at Leeds General Infirmary and one was en route to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough - each with one patient on board. "We do not know the exact state of the injuries, but certainly the patient en route to the James Cook Hospital was anaesthetised on scene by the doctor and paramedic," he said. Mr Hodgson said it was unlikely the aircraft would return to the scene, as there were enough resources there to deal with the casualties.