A BIKER was left lying in the road with a broken leg for three hours after colliding with a car.

Dan Morgan, 37, waited over 60 minutes for an ambulance to arrive in Long Riding, Basildon, following the crash on Sunday.

A second ambulance arrived another half an hour later - but neither were stocked with the pain relief Mr Morgan needed.

It wasn’t until the third ambulance arrived that paramedics were able to give him ketamine to relieve his agony. He was finally put onto a stretcher and rushed to hospital - three hours after the collision.

He underwent an operation yesterday as he had broken his leg in several places.

His brother, Brett Morgan, said: “I’ve recently found out that only the qualified response doctors and air ambulance carry pain relief such as the ketamine he required so that’s why he was left laying in the road for so long.

“Between the time it happened to when the call was actually despatched was way over what you call the golden hour and with the ill equipped ambulances if the situation was more life-threatening then he may not have been so lucky.

“However, the police and fire brigade did an excellent job helping at the scene.”

Witness Leanne Smith, 39, of Long Riding, told how she rushed out of her home to help after hearing the crash take place. She said Mr Morgan was gritting his teeth in pain and was struggling with the winter temperatures.

She said: “There were several people doing what they could, helping to keep him calm, diverting traffic, talking to emergency services and alerting his family. It took at least ten to 15 minutes for the police and fire service to arrive.

“The other services did what they could but obviously couldn’t offer him any pain relief. The cold from the ground was now getting to Dan and he was shivering uncontrollably.

“Even the other emergency services were surprised that this was bring treated as such low priority as he didn’t appear to be in a life threatening condition.

“I think regardless of that, no seriously injured person should be left to lay on the ground in the middle of a t-junction in the freezing cold with no pain relief.

“It was a small mercy that it wasn’t raining.

“It was only due to the officer in charge being so insistent that the first ambulance came when it did, just over an hour after the incident.

“Once the paramedics arrived I was asked to leave for patient confidentiality but I was aware that it took three hours in total to get Dan to the hospital.”

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: “We would like to apologise to Dan Morgan for his ambulance wait and any further distress this may have caused. We received a 999 call on Sunday at 1.20pm to reports of a road traffic collision in Long Riding, Basildon, to which we sent two ambulance crews and an air ambulance from the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance Trust. The incident was classed as a ‘green’ serious but not life-threatening call based on the information provided by the caller.

“Due to a high level of serious and life threatening calls in Essex yesterday, totalling more than 450, an ambulance arrived at 2.26pm. Mr Morgan was treated for a suspected broken leg before being taken to Basildon Hospital via land ambulance. If Mr Morgan or his family have any questions and concerns we would strongly encourage that they contact us directly if they wish for this to be investigated further.”