By LUIS FELIU

AN elderly woman was fighting for her life in Tweed Heads Hospital yesterday after a horror four-car crash on the Tweed's notorious Pacific Highway black spot at Sexton Hill on Friday night.

The 69-year-old woman, believed to be a Tweed resident, suffered severe chest and other injuries and was being treated and monitored around-the-clock in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Her condition late yesterday was listed as critical.

She was one of several people injured during the four-car pile-up on the rain-affected road's northbound lanes at Sexton Hill at about 6.30pm which brought all traffic to a grinding halt for more than an hour.

The woman and another person were freed by rescue squad members after they had been trapped in their vehicles.

Three other people injured in the accident were taken by ambulance to Tweed Heads Hospital suffering minor injuries.

Investigations are continuing into the accident, which came at the end of a chaotic day on Tweed's roads with police, ambulance and rescuers kept busy attending several smashes in heavy rain throughout the day.

Three of Friday's accidents ? two of which resulted in serious injury ? caused major traffic disruption on the highway with the rain deluge making the road slippery and visibility poor.

The accidents, particularly those on the Sexton Hill stretch, have sparked calls to speed up the proposed upgrade of the highway at Banora Point where even the smallest accidents have played havoc with traffic in the past.