THOUSANDS of motorists faced five-mile delays today simply because a lorry driver had broken down on the A14.The lorry, which came to a halt on the slip road to Claydon at 6.

THOUSANDS of motorists faced five-mile delays today simply because a lorry driver had broken down on the A14.

The lorry, which came to a halt on the slip road to Claydon at 6.50am, was left on the inner lane of the Stowmarket-bound carriageway for more than an hour-and-a-half while it was waiting for a recovery vehicle.

During that time traffic was left queuing back for more than five miles because of the incident.

One eye-witness said motorists were putting themselves in danger because they had been left waiting in the queues for so long.

The witness, who did not wish to be named, said: “There were cars zigzagging across the road and some drivers were taking very dangerous risks by doing three point turns on the slip road to avoid the queues.

“If the lorry had been a couple of inches further forward it would actually have been on the slip road and it would not have caused as much disruption. But once police had put out cones out there was a whole lane taken up by the incident.”

Lisa Miller, a police spokeswoman, said police had been notified of the problem at around 7am.

She said: “We were told a HGV had broken down just after the junction with Asda on the A14. When we arrived we realised it was on the slip road to Claydon and was half-on and half-off the carriageway.

“Because of this we had no choice but to close one lane of the carriageway. The driver had already contacted his own break down service to come and recover his vehicle. We then had to wait for it to arrive.”

Today's problem is a re-occurring one with more than 4,000 lorries using the A14 to get to Felixstowe port daily.

With expansion plans announced for the port the problem is only going to get worse and it is predicted within 15 years there will be a million more lorries using the A14 every year.

The lorry was cleared from the A14 at 8.33am and was the latest in a string of events to delay drivers this year.

Three days ago a crash caused a two-hour delay on the A14 and injured seven people including three children when the Land Rover Freelander flipped over on the Felixstowe-bound carriageway near the Orwell Bridge.

On March 20 motorists faced gridlock after a series of rush-hour crashes including a lorry which jack-knifed on the A14 at Whitehouse in the Felixstowe direction. The road was closed for more than two hours.