A SHOCKED motorcyclist today told of his lucky escape after he was confronted with a ladder lying across the A12 in peak hour traffic.Luke Garwood was travelling home to Grebe Close in the Chantry area of Ipswich when the ladder came off the back of a vehicle on the busy road near Capel St Mary.

A SHOCKED motorcyclist today told of his lucky escape after he was confronted with a ladder lying across the A12 in peak hour traffic.

Luke Garwood was travelling home to Grebe Close in the Chantry area of Ipswich when the ladder came off the back of a vehicle on the busy road near Capel St Mary at around 4.40pm yesterday.

The 25-year-old dad-of-one said: “I was in the fast lane on my motorcycle when all of a sudden the two cars ahead of me started to brake and swerve violently.

“I started to brake to avoid getting too close to the car in front and all of a sudden a large ladder emerged from under the car in front.

“I couldn't see where it had come from.

“There were all sorts flying at me.

“I quickly assessed the situation but had nowhere to go and had only one choice - go straight over the ladder which lay diagonally across my lane.

“I stood up on the bike and tried to take my feet off the footpegs just as I went over the ladder in an attempt to take some of the weight off the impact so it was just the weight of the bike going over it.

“Somehow I managed to keep my balance as my bike bounced over the twisted ladder, but something large, possibly a part of the ladder, hit my left shin.”

Mr Garwood, who looks after his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Melissa full time, pulled over as soon as it was safe and realised that although the bike had minimal damage he had been left with a deep cut in his leg. However the wound did not need medical treatment.

He added: “All in all I was very lucky, because there was so much traffic that had I come off I believe that I would have been hit by following cars.”

Did you see the ladder on the A12? Were you nearly involved in a crash? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.

RUSH-hour motorists faced traffic delays after the ladder fell off the back of a vehicle on the A12.

The accident happened on the Ipswich-bound carriageway of the road, just before the junction with Pound Lane at Capel St Mary.

Motorists faced delays of about half an hour as traffic built up in the area as motorists slowed down to avoid the debris on the road.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk police said: “We had numerous calls from different people to say there was a ladder in the fast lane.

“Someone then called to say it had been moved to the central reservation. So it looks like someone stopped and moved it.”

Meanwhile a woman was taken to hospital with minor injuries yesterday following a collision on the A1094 near Saxmundham.

Traffic jams were caused as the road was closed for a short time after the accident, also at around 4.40pm.

Emergency services attended the scene near the A12 and firefighters helped release one of the drivers from her car as the door would not open.

The road was reopen by 6pm.