A LORRY driver who cheated death when his vehicle plunged off the road and was hit by a train is to appear in court in connection with the accident.Bob Mortimer has been summonsed to court accused of careless driving and other offences relating to vehicle defects.

A LORRY driver who cheated death when his vehicle plunged off the road and was hit by a train is to appear in court in connection with the accident.

Bob Mortimer has been summonsed to court accused of careless driving and other offences relating to vehicle defects. He will appear at Colchester Magistrates' Court on January 16.

Mr Mortimer, 47, was driving a Scania 38-tonne lorry through Lawford from Manningtree on the A137 Harwich road when the accident happened in July this year.

The lorry, which belonged to A&S Farm Enterprises of Great Bromley, hit a concrete bridge and the top of the cab was severed from its chassis.

It hurtled 30ft down an embankment and onto the London-bound railway line where it was hit by a Freightliner train.

The debris was pushed 400 metres up the main Norwich-London track by the train, which was towing 19 carriages containing liquid phosphorous. The train was not derailed in the accident.

The lorry had a load of peppermint canisters destined for a chewing gum factory.

Mr Mortimer, formerly from Washbrook, just outside Ipswich, broke his pelvis in two places and spent some time in hospital.

The accident happened at about 5.30am, just twenty minutes before the first Intercity train was due to leave Ipswich station.

An Essex Police spokesman said: "A lorry driver has been summonsed to appear in court after being reported for careless driving following a road crash in which an articulated lorry landed on a railway line in north Essex.

"The incident happened in the early morning of Monday July 1 when the lorry, which was travelling from Manningtree towards Ardleigh, struck a road bridge in Lawford and tumbled down an embankment to land on a railway line.

"He is due to appear at Colchester Magistrates' Court on January 16."