A woman died at the scene of a two-car crash on Burntwood Way on 9 September. The ambulance service sent three crews, three paramedic officers and a helicopter.

A woman died at the scene of a two-car crash on Burntwood Way on the evening of Wednesday 9 September. Three other people were taken to hospital. The Burntwood crash brought three ambulances and an air ambulance to the road.

West Midlands Ambulance Service set out what happened in its own incident statement, published at 10am the following morning. The 999 call came in at 5.35pm.

The service sent:

  • three ambulances
  • three paramedic officers
  • a helicopter from the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity

Crews found five people in the two cars. A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said one of them, a woman, “was in a serious condition and already receiving basic life support from bystanders”.

“Ambulance staff immediately began administering advanced life support but sadly, despite everyone’s best efforts it became apparent nothing could be done to save the woman and she was confirmed dead at the scene,” the spokesman said.

Two women and a man were treated for injuries the service said were not believed to be serious. All three were taken to Walsall Manor Hospital by land ambulance. The fifth person was assessed and discharged at the scene.

The ambulance service has not named anyone involved, and neither are we.

Staffordshire Police has not published a statement

We checked the force’s news index, its site search and its Burntwood area news page on Sunday 14 September. None of them carries anything about this collision. The most recent Lichfield district items on the force’s own pages are about protest activity in Shenstone and a dispersal order issued in August.

That is worth saying plainly rather than filling the gap. Other outlets have reported a witness appeal with an incident number attached to it. We have not been able to find that appeal on anything Staffordshire Police publishes itself, so we are not repeating the wording or the reference as though the force had issued it to us.

If you saw what happened, the force’s own collisions and incidents page sets out how to get information to it, including an online reporting form. Its standing routes are 101 and Live Chat on its website, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 if you want to stay anonymous.

What happens next

A death on the road is one the coroner must look at. The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Coroners service says a coroner must investigate where the cause of death is unknown, where the death was violent or unnatural, or where the person died in state detention. A fatal collision falls into the second of those.

Staffordshire’s two coroner jurisdictions now operate as one service covering the county and Stoke-on-Trent, so any inquest opened in this case would be listed by that service. It publishes its inquest listings on the same site.

The helicopter is not an NHS service

The helicopter that flew to Burntwood Way belongs to the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, and that distinction catches people out. The charity says on its own website that it receives “no funding from the NHS or Government for our daily missions” and that it costs £20 million a year to run its helicopters, critical care cars and the people behind them.

It flies around 4,000 missions a year across six counties, Staffordshire among them, covering a population of roughly seven million.

What it means for you

Nothing published by the ambulance service or the force suggests Burntwood Way is still affected, and no closure arising from this collision appears on our Lichfield roadworks and travel page, which we rebuild from the county register and National Highways each week.

If you were on that stretch between about 5pm and 6pm on Wednesday 9 September, check your dashcam. Staffordshire Police asks for “doorbell, dashcam or CCTV footage” in appeal after appeal, and most cameras record over themselves on a loop. Save the file off the card now, whether or not anyone has asked you for it yet.

If you are worried about someone who was in one of the cars, the ambulance service does not release names or conditions, and the three people taken by land ambulance went to Walsall Manor Hospital.

Sources