WEARY Suffolk commuters were today caught up in more traffic problems as the A12 remained closed 24 hours after a lorry struck a bridge.

WEARY Suffolk commuters were today caught up in more traffic problems as the A12 remained closed 24 hours after a lorry struck a bridge.

Part of the Felixstowe bound carriageway is still closed today between Foxhall and the Seven Hills roundabout after a lorry carrying a rubbish compactor hit a bridge at Brightwell at around 6.45am yesterday.

Although the road was opened for an hour at rush hour yesterday morning, a subsequent assessment revealed damage to the bridge and the road was expected to remain closed throughout much of today.

Traffic was being diverted from the Foxhall roundabout, through Bucklesham village and back on to the A12 at the Seven Hills roundabout.

Lorry driver Darrel Hibbert was first on the scene following yesterday's incident which left the rubbish compactor strewn across the carriageway around 200 metres from the lorry it was being carried on.

He claims the driver told him that the compactor collided with the bridge because no-one had told him to put the arm down on the vehicle.

Mr Hibbert, from Lowestoft said he was stunned when he spoke to the lorry driver, who suffered only minor injuries in the collision.

He said: “He was conscious throughout and he was quite calm.

“What surprised me is what he said. I asked him how he did it and he said no one had told him put the arm down (on the compactor).

“It was quite shocking and I can't understand why he was so calm.”

Mr Hibbert said when he pulled over to help, rubble was still being shed from the bridge and several cars drove on through the wreckage and didn't stop.

While he called 999 another lorry driver stopped to check on the driver of the Viridor lorry.

He added: “When I saw the cab I didn't really want to look inside it so I got the other driver to do that while I called the emergency services.

“What annoys me is that while I called the ambulance people were just slowing down to have a look and then the ambulance couldn't get through.”

The driver of the lorry involved in the collision has not been named but was working for an agency called Indigo based in Mildenhall. He was travelling from Viridor's Foxhall site to the A14 when the crash happened.

Dan Cook, a spokesman for Viridor, said an investigation would be conducted and that the waste management company would be cooperating fully with police and the Highways Agency.