A teenager and his father were killed in a car crash which has left his mother and nine-year-old sister fighting for their lives, police said today.

The man was named as Derek John Saraar and his son is Ethan Saraar.

Sheila Stavert-Lee, a 70-year-old woman from York was also killed in the horror crash on a bridge in East Yorkshire yesterday afternoon. Initial findings indicate Ms Stavert-Lee was on the wrong side of the road at the time of the crash.

Ethan, 14, was a passenger in the Golf which his 47-year-old father was driving. Ethan's 44-year-old mother and nine-year-old sister were also passengers in the car.

The woman who survived and her daughter are in a critical condition at Leeds General Infirmary, Humberside Police said.

They were taken there by helicopter after the crash.

The family, who are from the West Midlands, were driving north along the A614 when they were in a head-on collision with the pensioner's Volvo on a bridge over the Aire and Calder Navigation canal at about 1.30pm.

The incident provoked a huge emergency services response with two air ambulances, three land ambulances and two rapid response paramedic units joining firefighters and police at the remote scene.

The investigation and clear-up operation took more than seven hours. Today, a single bunch of flowers was left on the centre of bridge.

The first person to arrive at the scene of the crash described her frantic attempts to help the injured.

Debbie Hinchliffe lives about 50 metres from the bridge where the two cars collided, leaving both as mangled wrecks.

She explained how she ran to the cars to hear the sound of children screaming and found the elderly woman unconscious in the Volvo, which appeared to be about to set on fire.

Mrs Hinchliffe said she wanted to talk about the horrific scene she witnessed in the hope something is done about the road outside her house which has seen a catalogue of crashes.

"It was a shock - the severity of it," she said.

"I was stood at my gate and I heard the crash. I ran to the scene. Two cars were written off.

"The old lady was unconscious and kids were screaming in the back of the other car. And I couldn't get anybody out.

"The car was going to set on fire with the old lady in.

"So I got in the car with her to turn the ignition off. I released her seatbelt and just stuck with her really. I couldn't do anything else."

Mrs Hinchliffe said the Golf had two people in the front who were obviously dead.

She said the elderly woman's daughter was following her mother in another car and came across the scene.

They were travelling to Doncaster from the York area, she believed.

Mrs Hinchliffe said she tried to get into the back of the Volkswagen where she thought children were trapped.

She said other people began to arrive and managed to free them.

But she said her main concern was to get the unconscious Volvo driver out as smoke poured from the engine compartment.

Her husband even went to bring a bucket of water to douse the car.

Mrs Hinchliffe said she took the woman's daughter to her house and police arrived later to inform them she had died.

She said: "I'm just sorry that I couldn't have done more."

Mrs Hinchliffe said she had lived in her home for eight years and has seen all kinds of accidents in that time.

"There's accidents every other week," she said.

"We want speed cameras. You take your life in your hands every time you pull out. With three deaths, maybe something will get done. I don't know."

Asked about previous incidents, she said: "I've had people laid out on my lawn, I've had cars through my plum trees into my garden."

Mrs Hinchliffe said: "It's only a matter of time before two wagons collide because they're speeding along here at 56 and it's a 40mph limit. It wants reducing to 30.

"How many accidents and deaths is it going to take before they do something? We have to live with this on a daily basis. It's horrendous."