A TRAPPED motorist had to be rescued after his cement mixer dramatically overturned on a busy main road resulting in rush-hour chaos.
Firefighters, police officers and paramedics were called to an accident on the A12 near the Marks Tey roundabout on the A120 at about 8.15am yesterday.
Upon arrival, the emergency services were confronted with a large cement mixer which had fallen onto its side with the driver still inside the cab.
Using a rescue platform while working alongside paramedics, fire crews from Colchester, Coggeshall and Witham started to free the trapped man.
After managing to safely pull him out, he was left in the care of the East of England Ambulance Service who carried out additional checks and treatment. It is believed he suffered a broken arm and collarbone.
One driver, whose six-year-old daughter Edie took this picture of the overturned vehicle, drove past the scene while travelling to Colchester.
She said: “It must have cornered too hard and then it just went over and there was cement powder all over the bushes and the verge behind it.
READ MORE: A12: Cement mixer overturns near A120 and Marks Tey
“I saw people trying to pull the driver out from the cab and my daughter was saying how the driver was still in there and that she hoped he was OK.
“We were leaving Marks Tey and heading back to Colchester and we saw several fire engines and police response vehicles heading there.
“Our lane was clear and the traffic was only just building up as we went by, but the left-hand lane onto the A120 was clogging up.”
After the driver had been freed, Essex Police officers shut down a section of the road to allow the cement mixer to be recovered and removed from the area.
Traffic started to build in many directions as a result, impacting rush-hour commuters travelling to and from Colchester.
Following roughly an hour of traffic congestion, however, the police lifted the cordon permitting access for all motorists.
A spokesman for Essex Police said: “We were called to an overturned vehicle on the A12 near Marks Tey shortly after 8.15am on Wednesday.
“The road re-opened at 9.15am.”
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