A man has been taken to hospital following the Ilford Winston Way crash, which sparked a major emergency response with London’s Air Ambulance landing on a nearby car park.
The London Ambulance Service was called to the roundabout where Winston Way meets Ilford Lane shortly after 1pm on Tuesday (6 October).
An ambulance crew, paramedics in fast response cars and an incident response officer were all mobilised to the scene. Fast response cars allow paramedics to reach casualties quickly and begin treatment before a full ambulance crew arrives.
Air ambulance lands close to scene
London’s Air Ambulance was also in attendance and was seen touching down on a car park close to the junction while road crews treated the casualty at the roadside.
The man was treated at the scene before being taken to hospital as a priority. His condition was unknown on Tuesday evening.
The scale of the response underlines the vital work carried out by London paramedics, who are routinely first on the scene when serious collisions happen in the capital.
Charity-funded trauma team
London’s Air Ambulance is a charity that brings an advanced trauma team to critically injured people across the capital. Its teams combine senior doctors and paramedics who can carry out procedures at the roadside that would normally only happen inside a hospital emergency department.
The service’s helicopter and rapid response cars allow it to reach patients anywhere in London within minutes, and it relies on donations from the public and businesses to keep operating. The charity has been serving the capital for more than three decades, and its distinctive red helicopter is only ever scrambled to the most serious incidents.
When the aircraft has to land in a built-up area, pilots look for the nearest safe open space — often a car park, park or playing field — which explains why the helicopter was seen coming down on a car park close to the busy Ilford junction.
Busy Ilford junction
The roundabout joining Winston Way and Ilford Lane sits a short distance from the heart of Ilford town centre, one of east London’s busiest shopping districts. The area draws thousands of shoppers every day, and the surrounding roads carry a constant mix of buses, delivery vans and through-traffic. The town centre is also a major transport interchange, with Ilford station served by the Elizabeth line.
Ilford Lane itself is one of the main roads running south from the town centre towards East Ham, lined with shops, restaurants and terraced homes. Together with Winston Way it forms part of the busy network of routes that keeps this corner of east London moving.
Ilford has grown rapidly in recent years, with new homes and businesses adding to the pressure on its road network. Busy junctions and roundabouts like the one at Winston Way are where the town’s traffic is at its most concentrated — and where collisions, when they happen, cause the greatest concern among residents and traders.
Serious collisions in London routinely draw a multi-agency response, with ambulance crews working alongside police officers to manage the scene and keep the surrounding roads safe for other users.
It is the latest in a string of serious incidents on the capital’s roads. A crash on the A406 left the North Circular gridlocked at Romford Road, while a two-car smash near Potters Bar drew more than 15 firefighters to the M25 and a morning crash near Canning Town blocked the A13 into central London.
What happens next
No further details about the circumstances of the Winston Way collision had been released on Tuesday evening, and the injured man’s condition remained unknown. Police will now work to establish the full circumstances of the collision.
London Streets will update this article as more information becomes available. Anyone who witnessed the collision is urged to contact police.
