By Richard SmithTWO people died and a man was in a serious condition with burn injuries last night after a horrific accident blocked the A12 for several hours.

By Richard Smith

TWO people died and a man was in a serious condition with burn injuries last night after a horrific accident blocked the A12 for several hours.

The road was closed a mile south of Yoxford when a car and a motorcycle were involved in an accident at 7pm.

Four fire crews, police cars, two ambulances and a community paramedic were sent to the scene of the crash between Kelsale and Yoxford.

The male motorcyclist and a female passenger in the car both died in the collision, while the male car driver's condition was described last night as “very serious”.

The two fatalities brought the number of people who have died on a nine-mile stretch of the A12 between Little Glemham and Darsham to seven in the past 13 months.

The A12 was expected to be closed until the early hours of today and police were continuing to make inquiries into the accident and trying to identify the victims.

A Suffolk police spokeswoman confirmed two people had died in the accident and a man was seriously ill.

A spokesman for the East Anglian Ambulance Trust added: “We had two ambulances and a community paramedic respond to the accident. One person was taken to Ipswich Hospital Ipswich with severe burns.”

The fire service sent crews from Leiston, Halesworth, Lowestoft and Saxmundham to the accident following reports that a car was burning.

The fire crews had finished their duties an hour later, but the A12 was closed for several hours while police carried out an investigation at the scene and diversions were set up through Framlingham to take motorists away from the accident.

Last year 43 people died on Suffolk's roads, the lowest number for six years - but they included three deaths on the A12 near the scene of last night's crash.

In January Jack Revell, 84, a former chairman of Saxmundham Town Council, died at Kelsale.

In June a man died in a two-car collision at Benhall, while a month later a woman died when her car was involved in a collision with a lorry at Little Glemham and in December 2003 a man and a woman died in a crash at Darsham.

Already this month there have been several fatalities in Suffolk including deaths in Felixstowe, Brantham and Sutton.

Earlier in the evening there was traffic congestion on the A14 at Claydon after two separate accidents on the westbound carriageway, one a three-vehicle collision and the other involving a motorcycle.

richard.smith@eadt.co.uk