AN ambulance crew said they were “stunned” after being sworn at by a driver who had been delayed by the accident they were attending.Essex Ambulance Service was called to the roundabout at the junction of the A130 and the A131 at Little Waltham at about 8.

By Sharon Asplin

AN ambulance crew said they were “stunned” after being sworn at by a driver who had been delayed by the accident they were attending.

Essex Ambulance Service was called to the roundabout at the junction of the A130 and the A131 at Little Waltham at about 8.15am yesterday.

A car had just joined the A131, heading towards Braintree, when it crossed the traffic island separating the two streams of traffic and was involved in a collision with a car that was queuing to come on to the roundabout.

Emergency medical technician, Adrian Hobbs, said: “Given the time of day, that junction is very busy and the crash undoubtedly caused a lot of people to be delayed as they made their way to work.

“However, given the nature of the injuries we simply cannot take any chances with the patient and have to follow strict protocols to ensure any injury is minimised. Unfortunately this does take time.

“What we find very disappointing is the attitude of a minority of drivers who passed us. Safety has to be our overriding priority - both ours and the patient's.

“Drivers seemed desperate to get past us and were bumping up over kerbs, coming perilously close to us and one gentleman clearly swore at us as he couldn't go where he wanted to.

“The majority of drivers gave us room to work and accepted the situation, but this man in particular showed a complete lack of respect for the job that we were doing.

“Given the initial caller suggested the man might be unconscious you can understand that we needed to treat this incident appropriately and unfortunately that meant some drivers were delayed.”

The first car, driven by an 18-year-old from Great Tey near Colchester, had suffered fairly severe front-end damage. The teenage driver was complaining of neck and shoulder pain.

Due to his condition, he was immobilised using a neck collar and backboard before being taken to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford for further assessment and treatment.

The car that was queuing was driven by a woman but she was unhurt and her car appeared to have escaped with relatively little damage.