POLICE are today investigating the cause of an A14 crash which left one man dead and the road closed for nearly eight hours. The collision occurred between an articulated lorry and a van at about 2.

POLICE are today investigating the cause of an A14 crash which left one man dead and the road closed for nearly eight hours.

The collision occurred between an articulated lorry and a van at about 2.15pm yesterday on the Felixstowe bound carriageway at Sproughton.

The driver of the van, believed to be a 40-year-old man from the Ipswich area, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police were trying to contact the man's next of kin today and will not reveal any further information until formal identification has taken place.

He is the 39th person to die on Suffolk's roads this year. The lorry driver was not injured in the collision.

The accident caused major disruption for motorists as traffic had to be diverted off the A14 at Claydon and onto the B1113, A1071 and A12/14 at Copdock.

The collision followed a morning of heavy snow showers, sleet and rain which also saw the A12 shut for several hours due to less serious accidents.

Jason Gillingham, clinical field operations manager for Ipswich ambulance station, said: “We received a call at around 2.10pm and arrived on scene eight minutes later.

“We sent two ambulances and a rapid response vehicle but the van driver was dead on our arrival.”

Earlier this year, business leaders urged planners to reconsider a northern bypass in Ipswich following the closure of the A14 for the fourth time in a month.

Heavy snowfall and treacherous road conditions in February caused several lorries to jack-knife along the busy dual carriageway, forcing police to close the Orwell Bridge during morning rush hour and divert traffic onto minor roads. This led to two-hour traffic jams into the centre of Ipswich.

The disruption sparked calls for council bosses to revisit proposals for a northern bypass in Ipswich, which would run from Martlesham through to the A140/A14 junction at Beacon Hill.