TAILBACKS were today caused on the A14 around Wherstead after a four-vehicle accident.The accident, described by a Suffolk police spokesman as a “shunt”, happened on the Stowmarket-bound carriageway around 5.

SUFFOLK'S flawed road network has today once again been exposed following a four-vehicle accident on the A14.

Long queues built up around Wherstead after the crash, which happened on the Stowmarket-bound carriageway of the road, at about 5.20pm yesterday.

It involved a Volkswagen Golf and caused one lane of the carriageway to be blocked. Traffic also stacked up on the Felixstowe-bound stretch as motorists slowed down to survey the accident as they passed.

There were no reports of any injuries.

In a separate accident, debris was left on the road after a car was in collision with the central reservation on the A14 at Rougham.

The accident, which happened on the Bury St Edmunds-bound carriageway just before 10.40am yesterday, involved a Great Blakenham-registered silver Vauxhall Astra.

Around 15 minutes later, a lorry shed some of its load on the A14 at Thurston, but once again there were no reports of any injuries.

Yesterday's gridlock was the latest in a series of accidents that have brought chaos to the roads around Ipswich.

It has led to calls for urgent action to improve the traffic flow around east Suffolk, with numbers of cars and lorries using the network spiralling to new highs.

Last Thursday, two crashes closed part of the A14, between Wherstead and Copdock, for six hours.

The Evening Star has launched a campaign to highlight the problem and has been backed by a number of top-ranking Suffolk officials.

Opinion - see page 6.