SEVEN people had to be taken to hospital after a horrific four-car pile-up near Bradford on Avon on Monday.

A teenage boy from Trowbridge, who was a back seat passengers in one of the cars, was still in hospital yesterday with what were described by police as life threatening injuries, while front seat passenger Lucy Hopkins, 16, from Trowbridge, has undergone operations on her legs and face after the accident on the B3107 Holt road, outside Beeches Farmhouse.

A middle-aged man and woman were taken to Royal United Hospital, Bath, with chest injuries, while two children, their mother and grandfather sustained minor injuries. Pauline Stanley, who runs the Beeches farm bed and breakfast and holiday cottages, was first on the scene with her three children, Lily, 13, Ted, 12, and Emily Baker, 20.

She said: "It was a very nasty, major accident. It was such a pile-up you couldn't tell how many were involved the cars were so embedded in each other. "There were so many people injured, some were barely conscious. It got very confusing to see who was who. Everyone was covered in blood.

"To be honest we are still quite traumatised. Emily was very involved helping get people out of cars. She sat in one holding somebody straight and rigid while the car was cut into pieces. My 13-year-old ran down towards Holt to close the road off while the 12-year-old grabbed armfuls of towels and bottles of water and put people in the recovery position.

"Lots of the guests were involved as well. We had a nurse staying in the house and she was helping the walking wounded. Another guest was helping pull people out of cars, we thought for a while they were going to blow, there was petrol everywhere."

Mrs Stanley said she was very proud of the way her children coped with the situation. "Nobody had to be told what to do, everybody just got on with helping," she said. "The emergency services were absolutely fantastic and were there so quickly. "Even when they'd finished after hours and hours working they came to the house and asked if anybody needed counselling even though they must have been messed up themselves."

The grandmother of 16-year-old Lucy, Molly Hopkins, from Trowbridge, said her granddaughter had suffered a broken thighbone, damage to her pelvis and both her lungs had collapsed. She said: "She had an operation on her leg on Tuesday and was then put on a life support machine. We are absolutely beside ourselves. She's such a beautiful girl."

Lucy has now been taken off the life support machine. Sgt Chris Moore, of Corsham traffic police, said officers were still trying to establish how the accident happened, but confirmed the four cars involved were a Ford Fiesta, a Renault Clio, which were travelling towards Holt, a Citroen Xsara and a Mazda 6, travelling in the opposite direction.

Julie Greaves, from Wiltshire Ambulance, said: "We had ambulances from Devizes and Chippenham and a response car at the scene. There were a large number of patients and some of the injuries were serious."

Two of the injured had to be airlifted to hospital and the road was closed for several hours. Sgt Moore is appealing for any witnesses to come forward and contact him on 0845 4087000.