A Braintree man was killed when his car hit a tree.

And a Maldon woman was seriously injured in a separate car accident.

Graham Stone, 34, of Goldingham Road, died while travelling along the main road at Willows Green near Felsted towards Friends Green at about 8.30pm yesterday.

Police believe the Ford Fiesta Mr Stone was driving left the road while negotiating a sweeping left hand bend and struck a large tree. He was certified dead at the scene.

A police spokesman said there was heavy rain and high winds at the time of the crash but could not say if the weather had been a factor.

Fire crews from Braintree and a rescue tender from Colchester went to the scene and freed his body using special cutting equipment.

A spokesman from the coroner's office said a post mortem examination would take place later and an inquest may follow depending on the cause of death.

In a separate accident a 54-year-old woman received serious internal injuries after a crash in Rettendon, Chelmsford, last night.

Margaret Matthews, of Lindisfarne Court, Maldon, was crossing the A130 Southend Road from South Hanningfield Road, Rettendon at 6pm when her Ford Fiesta was in a collision with a Peugeot 306 Estate car.

The driver of the Peugeot, Kenneth Mann, of Norwich, received treatment at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, for bruising to his chest.

A spokeswoman at Basildon Hospital said today Mrs Matthews had undergone surgery last night but was unable to give full details of her condition.

The incidents come just days after John Nevin, 34, of Byrony Close, Witham, died and four other people were injured in a three-car smash at the town's Chipping Hill Bridge.

The accident has prompted an ex-Witham mayor to brand the crash scene an "out-and-out blackspot".

Councillor Joy Reekie said the smash -- which happened at 5.30pm on Sunday - was "an accident waiting to happen".

Now she is calling for action to make the stretch safer. She said: "This is an appalling tragedy but I'd be lying if I said I was surprised by the news.

"The bridge desperately needs to be widened because it just can't cope with the sheer volume of traffic."

But Insp Mark Harman, of Bocking Traffic Unit, said: "The road itself is far from dangerous - the danger is in the way people drive along it.

"The layout is not new and nothing has changed because the road has no history of being perilous."

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