POLICE in Essex are appealing to motorists diverted off the M25 and along the A13 early last Sunday (December 4) to contact them if they saw a crash on the A13 near the Lakeside shopping centre.

Father of two Rasasingam Sritharan, 34, of Kempton Road in East Ham, suffered serious head injuries and died on Monday afternoon in Basildon Hospital.

He was in traffic which had been diverted off the M25 – which had been closed due to a petrol tanker fire – and on to the A13.

Mr Sritharan had come to a halt in his grey Renault Megane on the southbound A13, near its junction with the A126 Lakeside turnoff, just before 6am on Sunday, when his car was struck by a Vauxhall Vectra.

The Vectra driver, a 25-year-old man from East London, was not seriously injured but was detained overnight in hospital for observation.

PC Fay Edwards, of Laindon Road Policing Unit, said she was sure that many people had witnessed the crash but had not been able to stop at the time.

She added: “Due to the location of the incident and the fact that, at the time, vehicles were being diverted off the M25 due to a fuel tanker fire there is a possibility that our witnesses may have been a lot more widely spread than normal.”

Anyone who witnessed the incident is being asked to contact PC Edwards at Laindon RPU, telephoneR 01268 541312.