A MAN is fighting for his life in hospital after a piece of metal debris smashed through his car windscreen and struck him in the head as he was driving along the A12.

Elliot Furniss

A MAN is fighting for his life in hospital after a piece of metal debris smashed through his car windscreen and struck him in the head as he was driving along the A12.

The object was swept up by another vehicle as the 47-year-old victim travelled along the busy dual carriageway near Marks Tey in Essex on Saturday.

The accident happened at just before noon and led to the southbound side of road being closed for several hours, generating lengthy delays on the busy route and causing heavy congestion in nearby Colchester.

Police criticised the dangerous actions of some “ignorant” drivers, with some drivers reversing up slip roads to avoid the traffic.

A spokesman said: “Road policing officers were being hampered in their investigative work by impatient, ignorant and dangerous drivers who have been reversing up slip roads and attempting to cross carriageways.

“The road was closed for the remainder of the afternoon and diversions were put in place.”

Fire crews from Colchester and Witham were sent to the emergency and used cutting equipment to remove the roof of the car in order to free the injured man.

The driver, from the Colchester area, was taken to Queen's Hospital in Romford, which specialises in treating serious head injuries.

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said several of its units were sent to the scene but the air ambulance was grounded due to bad weather.

The spokesman said there was another person in the car at the time of the accident, but after being checked out at the scene by paramedics she was found to be uninjured.

Police are now calling for anyone who was using the road at the time of the crash to come forward with any information about how the piece of metal sheeting came to be on the road.

The crash has not been linked with a recent spate of dangerous incidents along the A12 when lumps of concrete have been dropped from bridges onto moving vehicles.

The police spokesman said: “A metal object had fallen off a vehicle and had been lying in the carriageway when it was flipped up into the air by a passing blue car.

“It then struck another vehicle, smashing through its windscreen and hitting the driver in the head. The victim sustained serious head injuries and was conveyed to Romford's Queen's Hospital.

“This metal object had been in the road for some time. We are not linking it with recent incidents of criminal behaviour involving concrete blocks.

“We do need to know how it came to end up in the road. The driver of the blue car that flipped it up continued driving towards Chelmsford so probably didn't realise the subsequent crash.

“They may be able to tell us if the saw it fall from another vehicle and I would urge them to contact us urgently.”

Any witnesses to the crash, including the driver of the blue car, can contact officers at Stanway Road Policing Unit on 0300 3334444.