ONE MAN has been hospitalised and another hunted by police after crash chaos hit South Somerset.

On Friday, a man was rushed to hospital after a two car crash on the A358 along Furnham Road, between the Glynswood junction and the Thorndun Park Drive junction.

The stretch of road was closed to traffic travelling in both directions following the collision. Police, fire engines, ambulance and air ambulance were all called to the scene.

Fire engines from Chard and Axminster arrived to find one person was trapped within a vehicle, and used hydraulic cutting equipment and small tools to release him.

Although a Devon Air Ambulance was called to the crash, the man was taken to hospital in a land ambulance.

There were two further crashes in South Somerset on Saturday, both on the A303 between Chard and Ilminster.

Firstly, there were long delays after three cars were involved in a crash near the Forest Mill junction.

The dual carriageway was left partially blocked with traffic moving slowly westbound between the Forest Mill Lane junction in Horton and the Giant's Grave junction in Buckland St Mary.

A second crash saw the A303 closed after two cars collided causing severe delays affecting between Ilminster and Honiton.

The vehicles crashed between B3170 and Giant's Grave junction.

Chard police's beat manager, PC Paul Thomas, said: "Drivers need to be much more careful at this time of year now the the summer holidays have started and there are lots of tractors, particularly on the country lanes around Chard, Crewkerne and Ilminster.

"There are a lot of farm vehicles using the roads and lots of slow moving traffic around.

"This can be quite dangerous if drivers are not being careful."

“Luckily, nobody was killed or seriously injured in these collisions, but we need to try and reduce the number of crashes to try and make sure there aren’t any fatalities.”

A manhunt began on Monday morning after a two car crash at Southfields roundabout near Ilminster.

Police were called to the crash at Southfields roundabout on the A303 near Ilminster.

On arrival, it was found that one of the motorists had fled the scene in their car following the incident.

Nobody was injured in the crash, however, police are now trying to track down the other motorist in connection to the incident.

A spokesman for police said: "We were called to a two vehicle collision at Southfields roundabout shortly after 11am.

"One of the vehicles left the scene and it is therefore being treated as a fail to stop.

"We are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to contact us on 101 and quote crime incident number 370 of today."

On Monday evening, three fire engines were called to an overturned car on A303 between Chard and Ilminster.

Police closed the road while the overturned car, which was in a ditch, was removed.

When the fire service arrived at the scene, the crews comfirmed one vehicle had left the highway and was upside down in a ditch. All people involved were free and clear of the vehicle. Crews made the scene safe and stemmed a fuel leak from the vehicle.