A DRIVER died and his partner was seriously injured after a car was involved in a crash with an articulated lorry.The impact of the collision sent the Corsa car which the couple were inside careering up a steep bank beside the A14 near Newmarket before it rolled back down and landed partially on its roof.

A DRIVER died and his partner was seriously injured after a car was involved in a crash with an articulated lorry.

The impact of the collision sent the Corsa car which the couple were inside careering up a steep bank beside the A14 near Newmarket before it rolled back down and landed partially on its roof.

The truck ended up 100 metres from the collision, which happened just before 2.50pm yesterday, on the grass verge.

Fire crews from Suffolk and Cambridgeshire worked for more than an hour to free the female passenger, who was trapped in the wreckage of the car.

The middle-aged woman, who was in the front passenger seat of the Corsa, was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, where her condition was last night thought to be serious. Her partner was declared dead at the scene by a doctor.

Assistant Divisional Officer John Hubble said: "The car was partially on its roof so we had to use hydraulic equipment to stabilise the vehicle before we could begin cutting away the roof to get at the couple. It took us an hour to get to the woman.

"We worked with paramedics to free her because she was quite badly trapped. She was drifting in and out of a coma so she was unable to help us herself."

ADO Hubble said: "It's always difficult when there is a fatality as in this case but we are trained to deal with these situations and everything went smoothly."

"We used stabilising gear and then worked with the car as it was – if we had tried to turn the car over you never know what sort of injuries you are going to cause."

The maroon Corsa was wrecked in the accident but the Iveco lorry was relatively unscathed.

The truck driver is not thought to have been injured in the accident, which happened yards from the 1,000 Guineas Service Station on the three-lane eastbound stretch of the A14.

A Suffolk police spokesman was unable to give any further details of the couple involved in the accident. He said one lane of the road was closed while accident investigators examined the site in a bid to find out the cause of the collision.

Any witnesses are being asked to contact police on 01284 774224.