TWO women died and two men were critically injured when their car smashed into a lamp post on Brighton sea-front early today.

One of the women was thought to have been five months pregnant.

The crash happened at 2.45am when their Rover 827 sli, heading towards Hove, clipped a kerb and hit the lamp post.

Kings Road was closed for three hours while emergency services dealt with the accident. Police today were trying to establish how the crash could have happened at a time when the seafront road was comparatively quiet, conditions were fair and no other vehicle was involved.

Accident investigators will determine the speed of the Rover just before impact.

The car was being driven from the Aquarium roundabout, past the Palace Pier, and was opposite the Queens Hotel when it hit the lamp post broadside.

The two women, in their twenties, were dead at the scene and paramedics treated one man trapped inside the wreckage for 90 minutes before firefighters could free him.

The second man was found outside the car, although police are unsure whether he was thrown from the vehicle or managed to crawl out.

Both men, in their thirties, were taken by ambulance to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, one with severe head wounds and the other with serious back injuries. They underwent emergency surgery

and were said to be in critical

condition.

The four casualties are all thought to live locally.

Off-duty nurse Esther Goddard, one of the first on the scene, gave one woman mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but there was no response.

Mrs Goddard, who lives in Peacehaven and works in accident

and emergency at a hospital in Ealing, West London, said: "I've treated seriously-injured people, but it is different when you see them at the scenes of accidents.

"This was dreadful and so sad. This woman was lying on the pavement. She looked about five or six months pregnant.

"There was no pulse but myself and another woman took it in turns with heart massage and mouth-to-mouth."

Mrs Goddard, 47, was in a taxi, returning home after a night out, when she saw the wrecked car.

Cab drivers stopped their vehicles around the scene to keep other traffic clear for emergency services.

Mrs Goddard said: "One woman was hanging out of the car. She was clearly dead. I tried helping the other woman, but when paramedics arrived I told them it was no use.

"I talked to the two men inside the vehicle and called the hospital later to see how they were.

"I have not slept all night thinking about it."

Police are trying to confirm the identities of all four casualties.

Fire Brigade Sub Officer Steve Tomlin, in charge of the rescue operation, said: "It was a very nasty and protracted job and it took us about an hour-and-a-half."

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