AN ELDERLY man has been killed tonight after he drove the wrong way along the A12 and smashed into a van.

Anthony Bond

AN ELDERLY man has been killed tonight after he drove the wrong way along the A12 and smashed into a van.

Police say the man, who had joined the road on the Suffolk/Essex border, had been involved in a number of collisions and near misses before colliding with a van. It is thought he had been on the road for a number of miles before crashing.

Officers received a number of simultaneous 999 calls from members of the public at about 8pm reporting the car travelling southbound on the northbound carriageway near the Gun Hill junction, Stratford St Mary.

Police officers were immediately sent to the A12 but prior to their arrival the car had caused several vehicles to swerve to avoid it, causing minor crashes before it collided with a van.

The crash with the van, near Ardleigh, Colchester, resulted in the elderly man dying at the scene and the van driver, a man from Suffolk, was taken to hospital with injuries which are not thought to be serious. Both vehicles were severely damaged.

Essex Police said the road will be closed for some considerable time and travellers are advised to check travel bulletins in the morning.

Emergency services including police, fire and ambulance crews were called to the scene.

The A12 is closed between Ardleigh Crown and Dedham on the northbound carriageway.