By Benedict O'ConnorCALLS have been renewed for improvements to one of the region's most notorious roads after an horrific pile-up that left one person injured.

By Benedict O'Connor

CALLS have been renewed for improvements to one of the region's most notorious roads after an horrific pile-up that left one person injured.

The driver of a silver Mazda was trapped in his car as it was crushed in a collision involving three lorries on a single-carriageway stretch of the A11 near Elveden yesterday morning.

A police spokesman said it appeared the car had been partially trapped beneath one of the lorries and the driver had had to be cut free from the wreckage and airlifted to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.

No-one else was thought to have been hurt in the accident and the driver's injuries were not said to be life-threatening.

The four-vehicle crash brought traffic to a standstill for several hours on the main route between London and Norwich - where almost 70 people have been killed in the past 20 years - with tailbacks stretching several miles.

But the accident, which took place one mile east of Elveden, has revived calls for the road to be made into a dual carriageway.

Rona Burt, a member of Forest Heath District Council and a long-term campaigner for improvements to the A11, said: “Something has got to be done about that road as soon as possible, there have been so many accidents and injuries along there.

“It has got to the point where people are actually nervous about travelling up the A11 and when you do you are always expecting there to be an accident, and then when there has been one there is nowhere for the traffic to go.

“The Government must not be allowed to drag their heels over this any longer.”

Mrs Burt was among many campaigners left stunned by the Government's decision earlier this year to withdraw the A11 from a series of major road improvement schemes being carried out nationwide.

After a concerted campaign over several years from residents and MPs whose constituencies border the road, indications had been given last year that the stretch of road would finally be made into a dual carriageway.

benedict.o'connor@eadt.co.uk