AN urgent call has been made for a notorious stretch of road to be dualled after a mother was left fighting for her life after an horrific crash with an ambulance answering a 999 call.

AN urgent call has been made for a notorious stretch of road to be dualled after a mother was left fighting for her life after an horrific crash with an ambulance answering a 999 call.

MP Douglas Carswell said it was time for “action not talk” on the A120 road after the 30-year-old woman and her three-year-old son suffered severe injuries in the head-on crash at Ramsey, near Harwich, on Saturday.

The woman, from Harwich, was still in a critical condition in intensive care at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford last night. Her son was recovering from serious injuries, including a broken arm and leg, in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

They were travelling towards Colchester in a blue Peugeot 106 when they collided with the ambulance, which was answering an emergency call in Harwich at midday.

Last night, Conservative MP Mr Carswell said it was time for action on the notorious stretch of road.

“I am really sorry to hear about another tragedy and I think it further highlights the fact that it is not a safe stretch of road,” he said.

“It does need to be upgraded and the longer authorities take to do this, the more likely it is there will be further awful accidents. We need action not just talk.

“Since I was elected 18 months ago people have been talking about it, now we need something done about it.”

He said he would be writing to Essex County Council to press the need for improvements to the road.

The stretch of the A120 between Hare Green and Harwich has been the scene of a number fatal and serious accidents over the years.

Before Saturday's accident, there had been two fatal accidents so far this year and two further accidents in which people were seriously injured. There were also five slight injury accidents and four non-injury.

In 2002 the EADT launched its Action for the A120 campaign which called for the road to be improved as a matter of urgency. The single lane road was deemed unsuitable for its heavy load in the early 1980s.

A spokeswoman for the Highways Agency said yesterday: “Any accident on the network is regrettable and the agency continuously monitors and assesses the trunk road network from a safety point of view.”

Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd, which owns Harwich International Port, has agreed to carry out work to improve the A120 before the multi-million pound expansion of the port.

Studies are currently being carried out to assess the best scheme which would then be subject to a public consultation and public inquiry.

Saturday's crash closed the A120 for five hours as emergency workers cleared the debris and police carried out an investigation.

It later emerged the ambulance crew were on the way to Harwich International Port where a 75-year-old man had collapsed with a cardiac arrest.

After the crash, which left the ambulance in a field, paramedics, who received only minor injuries in the collision, treated the woman and her son while waiting for other emergency services to arrive.

Meanwhile, a doctor was immediately on scene to care for the heart attack victim, who had just come off the cruise ship Ocean Majesty. However he was declared dead almost straight away, said a spokeswoman for the East of England Ambulance Service.