A MOTORIST was taken to hospital after a collision with a lorry on the A64 - the very same day the Government revealed plans to improve the notorious stretch of road.

Drivers, residents and businesses have been campaigning for improvement work to the Malton junction on the busy main road for years.

In the latest accident, a car was in collision with a lorry as it tried to join the road's westbound carriageway. The lorry struck the car side-on, sending it crashing into the central reservation.

Police said the driver - an elderly man, believed to be local - did not see the oncoming Spar lorry and pulled out into its path.

Accident investigator TC Paul Moon, of Malton Police, said: "The lorry's front wheel hit the side of the car, and spun it round into the barrier." The accident happened yesterday afternoon. The lorry was undamaged, and the car driver was taken by ambulance to York Hospital for checks. He was not believed to be seriously injured.

Meanwhile, Ryedale MP John Greenway announced "real and tangible progress" on work to improve the junction of the A64 and the B1248 at Musley Bank, the exact spot where the accident took place.

Last year, Mr Greenway led a delegation to meet roads minister Stephen Ladyman and campaign for a raft of improvements to the A64.

Now Dr Ladyman has written back to the MP, to report that preliminary work on Malton's accident blackspot is already underway.

He said: "A scheme at Musley Bank is being pursued by the Highways Agency as part of its programme of local network management schemes.

"Assessment work presently under way is scheduled to be completed by summer 2006 and will allow the way forward to be identified."

Mr Greenway told the Gazette & Herald: "This is hugely significant, and very good news. Something is finally happening at Musley Bank. The minister is saying the he has concluded that a scheme needs to be pursued."

In addition to improving road safety, campaigners say a better junction would relieve Malton and Norton of their frequent bumper-to-bumper HGV traffic jams.

Mr Greenway added: "We want this junction to open up the York Road industrial estate area of Malton, and this is the first positive indication from the Government that they are prepared to be involved with the creation of each-way access at the southern end of the Malton bypass.

"This whole scheme is something that could be done and dusted within the next few years - and it would make a huge difference."

The Highways Agency is understood to be investigating building a roundabout at the Low Hutton turn-off, just before the B1248 York Road junction.

A slip road would connect the roundabout to Malton and its industrial estate, meaning that for the first time Scarborough-bound traffic could join the A64 there.

In the wake of yesterday's accident, Mr Greenway added: "This just proves our point. The accident is another sad example of the problem that that road causes.

"The B1248 filters into the A64 just where it reduces to one lane, and it can be a difficult and confusing junction."

Updated: 15:37 Wednesday, February 15, 2006