PATIENTS visiting a walk-in centre were slapped with parking fines as they could not get out of the car park following a serious collision.

Turner Road in Colchester was closed by police for hours following an incident where a teenager was in collision with a car.

Brooklyn Taylor-Mcloughlin, 15, was airlifted to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge where he was in a coma. He is now recovering.

The road was closed while the emergency services worked but it meant patients visiting the walk-in centre and Colchester Hospital could not get out of the car parks.

Raymond March, from Tiptree, has now received a £70 fine as he had been trapped in the walk-in centre car park for almost two hours.

He had been visiting the centre with his wife, Gillian, when the accident happened nearby.

He said: “I had only been in the centre for 15 minutes, I was in and out.

“When we came out we went to the ticket machine and I put my registration in, it said we didn’t have to pay as we hadn’t been there long.

“Then we realised we couldn’t get out of the car park as the road was shut. I ended up getting a fine for excess parking.

“I wasn’t the only one, there must have been about 40 cars trying to get out and it was totally congested.”

Mr March ended up spending an hour and 44 minutes in the car park while police and the ambulance service dealt with the collision.

Mr March said he will pay half of the £70 parking fine but appealed against the decision.

Last October, the walk-in centre landlord Community Health Partnerships said all those parking at the Turner Road site will be subjected to parking charges, which start at £3 after the first 60 minutes.

The parking system is run by the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust which runs Colchester Hospital.

After the Gazette contacted ESNEFT, a spokeswoman said all fines given from the time of the accident onwards would be cancelled because of the exceptional circumstances.