A MAN in his 70s was taken to hospital after the vehicle he was driving collided with a number of cars and careered into a motel.

One shocked witness said the motorist in the Nissan Almera “bounced” into the Brightlingsea Motel, in the town’s High Street, at about 2.30pm on Tuesday last week.

An air ambulance was scrambled to the scene, along with three land ambulance vehicles, police and fire fighters from Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe.

Motel owner Nicola Breeden said: “He went past Boots in this direction and crashed into a parked car, then ricocheted and crashed into us, then ended up on the other side of the road and crashed into two parked cars where he then mounted the kerb.

“His car was left in the middle of the road with him in the car.”

“It is just jolly lucky no-one else has been hurt, given the time of day it happened.”

Firefighters managed to cut the man out by 3.10pm and he was taken by land ambulance to Colchester General Hospital.

One witness, who was carrying out maintenance work outside The Bike Shop, in High Street, when the crash happened, said two cars had collided and “bounced off each other”.

He added: “One bounced into the shop, the other one bounced across the road.

“A lot of people ran over there straight away and called the ambulance, police and fire brigade.”

He said the other motorist was uninjured.

An Essex Police spokesman said the elderly man’s injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

Mrs Breeden said insurers would be assessing the structural damage to the 110-yearold motel building, which is still open for business.