A HOTELIER has called for new warning signs on the A12 after a customer was killed in an accident - and a motorist has called for the gap to be closed after a near-miss at a junction near Woodbridge.

A HOTELIER has called for new warning signs on the A12 after a customer was killed in an accident - and a motorist has called for the gap to be closed after a near-miss at a junction near Woodbridge.

Michael Bunn, owner of the Seckford Hall Hotel, urged the county council to erect signs alerting drivers to the junction which leads to his hotel and Great Bealings.

He was speaking after one of his customers, 87-year-old Frederick Hadden, died on Sunday following an accident at about 2.30pm.

Mr Hadden, of Crofton Road, Ipswich, was driving a silver Ford Fiesta which was involved in a collision with a Mitsubishi Shogun at the junction with the C327 road to Great Bealings.

A woman passenger in the Fiesta also aged 87 was taken to Ipswich Hospital with serious injuries. Her condition is now said to be improving.

Mr Bunn said the couple, who had Sunday lunch at the hotel, were well-known customers and Mr Hadden had run the Pompadours hair salon in Westgate Street, Ipswich.

He said he thought the junction was safe but warning signs were required on the north-bound carriageway of the A12 to alert drivers that there was a crossover junction ahead.

Mr Bunn said: “Cars coming from Ipswich go up the hill towards the junction and they are all trying to race up to get in before the road becomes a single carriageway.”

Meanwhile a motorist called for urgent improvements to a stretch of the A12 following the accident - just weeks after he narrowly avoided ploughing into another vehicle at the same spot.

Jonathan Stollery, from Framlingham, said he had a narrow escape on the same stretch of road and called for the gap along the central reservation to be closed before someone else died.

He said: “I was travelling northbound about two or three weeks ago. It's a dual carriageway so I was going about 60mph when I noticed a car coming out of the Seckford Hall junction.

“I thought they were going to turn left up the hill but they pulled out in front of me and headed straight across towards the gap in the central reservation.”

A Suffolk county council spokeswoman said: “There has been one previous injury accident during the last three years on this stretch of road. We are currently working on an A12 road safety route treatment which runs from the A14 Seven Hills roundabout north to the A1094 junction.”