An injured van driver who was “lucky to be alive” after an early-morning crash on the A44 at Ponterwyd was left waiting three hours for an ambulance to arrive.

The van driver knocked on the door of John Wall, of Ffynnon Cadno Guest House in the village, after being involved in the one-car crash at around 3.30am on Saturday, 8 December.

Mr Wall said the man was “obviously in pain” but that it took three hours for an ambulance to arrive at the scene.

The Welsh Ambulance Service said that “high demand” at the time led to a lack of availability of ambulances.

Mr Wall told the Cambrian News that the wait was not good enough.

“The van driver who had gone off the road close to our house was covered in blood,” he said.

“The van was badly damaged and the driver was lucky to be alive as a stake had penetrated the cab and missed his head by inches.

“We immediately called an ambulance as he was obviously in pain, had glass from the windscreen embedded in his head, had severe pain in his neck and down his back and was in shock.

“It seems incredulous that in this modern age one would have to wait three hours for an ambulance to arrive, but that is what happened.”

“Although the gentleman’s injuries turned out to not be life threatening they could have been, and I now understand that he has got a fracture of the neck,” he added.

“What would have happened if there was a more serious accident on this road, which has been classified by Welsh Government statistics as the most dangerous road in Wales or elsewhere in the county?

“Surely there should be more cover in such remote areas of Wales or are all the resources focused in south Wales like everything else.”

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