Van driver’s fatal crash not caused by concrete from motorway bridge, police say
However, Essex police are treating the death on the M11 as suspicious.
A lump of concrete that hit a van driver’s windscreen before he crashed and died was not thrown from a motorway bridge, police have said.
The concrete “around the size of a house brick” hit the Vauxhall Corsa van on the M11 near Birchanger, Essex, causing its driver to lose control and hit a tree.
The driver, a man in his 60s and from Sible Hedingham in Essex, died at the scene.
Police are treating the death as suspicious due to the concrete, but have now ruled out several lines of inquiry including that it was thrown from a bridge or the roadside, or that it was falling bridge masonry.
Essex Police were called to the northbound carriageway of the M11 between junctions seven and eight at 4.50pm on Wednesday and the carriageway was closed for investigations.
The Goose Lane bridge, which crosses the motorway, was also closed as part of the inquiry and officers appealed to speak to drivers who saw anyone acting suspiciously on the bridge.
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Pasmore said: “As part of our inquiries, we closed the bridge at Goose Lane and the one about a mile and a half before it to carry out forensic examination work.
“We have now established the concrete could not have been thrown from either bridge, and nor was it part of the masonry.
“We are also satisfied it was not thrown from the roadside. We continue to keep an open mind as to how it came to strike the windscreen and ended up inside the van, and whether this was the result of a deliberate act or accidental.”
The van struck the central reservation barrier before it left the road on the nearside and hit a tree.
Police are also appealing for witnesses and for people to send dash cam footage taken in the area, between the junctions for Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford, between 4pm and 6pm on Wednesday.
