POLICE have charged a 52-year-old man over a motorway Crash which saw the driver of a VW Beetle airlifted to hospital with life-changing injuries.

Joseph Purcell, 52, from Bilston near Wolverhampton faces charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and causing serious injury by dangerous driving in connection with the evening rush hour smash near Redmarley last week.

He has been remanded in custody to appear at Worcester Crown Court on Monday, October 22.

His arrest follows an appeal by West Mercia Police to trace the driver of a silver Volvo V70 car which they said was involved in the crash with the VW Beetle around 5.45pm on Monday, September 17.

Officers released an image of both cars and appealed for information to help locate the Volvo driver.

A force spokesperson said at the time: “The crash happened on the westbound carriageway between Junctions 1 and 2 at around 5.45pm, and involved a silver Volvo V70 and a blue VW Beetle.

“A woman was left with life-changing injuries and airlifted to hospital. Police are particularly keen to locate the driver of the Volvo V70.”

A ten-mile stretch of the motorway was closed for five hours following the rush-hour incident, when the VW left the carriageway near the A417 Gloucester turnoff.

It was the first of three serious accidents on the same stretch of road last week, with the M50 closed overnight after a serious collision involving a van and an HGV lorry on Wednesday evening, September 19, between Ross-on-Wye and the Newent B4221 turn off, and a car hitting the central reservation near the same location around 6.45am the following morning.

A stretch of the M50 was closed for nearly five hours overnight after the van and HGV crashed around 10.50pm, between junctions 3 and 4. The motorway was fully reopened by 3.45am next morning (September 20).

Only three hours later, another car was reported to have hit the central reservation, blocking lane two of the westbound motorway at the same B4221 junction.