Three people have been arrested following a serious early morning collision on the A130 that left five emergency services workers injured.
The road was closed for several hours between Sadlers Farm and the Rayleigh Spur roundabout while police carried out investigations.
The incident began shortly after midnight on Friday 10 January, when a white Nissan X-Trail was involved in a single-vehicle collision on the southbound carriageway of the A130, between the Rayleigh Spur and Sadlers Farm roundabouts.
Paramedics and off-duty police officers attended the scene. While they were dealing with the initial incident, a second collision occurred involving a white Ford Transit van.
As a result, two paramedics and three off-duty police officers were injured. One paramedic and one police officer sustained serious injuries and remain in hospital. The other three were also taken to hospital with injuries.
An eyewitness described the scene as overwhelming, saying it happened at around 1am and they had “never seen so many emergency services” in one place.
Essex Police confirmed that three people have now been arrested in connection with the two collisions.
A 23-year-old man from Canvey has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, theft of a motor vehicle, and driving while unfit through drink or drugs.
A 29-year-old man from Westcliff has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a Class B or Class C drug, and being in charge of a vehicle while unfit through drink or drugs.
A 39-year-old man from Canvey has been arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving while unfit through drink or drugs.
All three remain in custody and are being investigated by the Serious Collision Investigation Unit.
Chief Superintendent Morgan Cronin said:
“The thoughts of everyone at Essex Police is with the emergency workers injured while responding to this incident – both they and their families are being provided with support from the force.
“I’d stress this investigation is now active and we would encourage members of the public not to speculate, and to let our teams establish the facts of both these incidents.
“Those arrested remain in custody and we are working through enquiries at pace.
“If the public have any information – or crucially dashcam footage of the vehicles involved – that they believe will assist our investigation, please get in touch.”
Anyone with information or relevant dashcam footage is asked to contact police via the Essex Police website or by calling 101, quoting incident 18 of Saturday 10 January.