A 17-YEAR-OLD youth was in a critical condition in Southampton Hospital this morning following a bad car accident on St Saviour’s Hill.

Mark Jowett, who was one of four teenagers in the car, had to be cut from the wreckage of a white Mini Metro by firefighters just after 9 pm on Saturday.

He suffered severe head, chest, leg and arm injuries when the car smashed into the granite garden wall of Government House and overturned.Mr Jowett, who was a back seat passenger in the car, was initially treated at the General Hospital but was later flown to Southampton, where he is now being treated in the specialist neurological unit.

His parents, who live in St Clement, flew out last night to be at his bedside.Samuel Arnott (18), Martyn Sansom (18) and Duarte Ferreira (17), all of St Clement, were also hurt in the crash, but their injuries are not life-threatening.

The police refused to name the driver of the vehicle, but said that there was no suggestion that he had been drinking.