A MOTORCYCLIST is in a ‘critical condition’ following a crash involving a van.

The rider was airlifted to hospital following the incident on Sunday afternoon, just over the border in Devon.

Police officers said they were called just before 4pm to the collision at Heathfield Cross, Westhayes, near Colyford in East Devon.

The collision involved a white Iveco Daily Panel Van and a white Triumph Daytona 675R motorcycle.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “The Triumph was on the main A3052 heading from Lyme Regis towards Colyford in the company of another motorcyclist on a Yamaha YZF R1.

“The Iveco van was travelling from a minor road at Heathfield Cross.”

The spokesman added: “The motorcycle rider, a 33-year-old man from Honiton, suffered serious injuries and was airlifted to Bristol Royal Infirmary where he remains in a critical condition. “The van driver, a 69-year-old man from Axminster, was not injured. The second motorcyclist, from Exeter, was not involved in the collision.”

Officers from the Exeter Roads Policing Team and the Serious Collision Investigation Team attended the scene and the road was closed for six hours while officers carried out an examination of the scene.

Devon and Cornwall Police are appealing for further witnesses to the A3052 crash to come forward.

Witnesses and anyone with information should call 101, ask for Devon and Cornwall police and quote incident number DCP-20170611 - 0592.

The incident comes just three weeks after 28-year-old pedestrian Travis Christopher was killed in a collision with a car on the same road.

The road was closed for nine hours while a specialist forensic investigation of the scene was carried out.

Officers were called at 2.30am after Travis, who was a pedestrian, was in a collision with a green BMW 323 on the A3052 near Ware Cross on Sunday, May 21. In a tribute, his family said they were “devastated” at his loss, adding: “Travis was so loved and will be terribly missed by all who knew him.

“Travis was 28 years old and was a skilled plasterer and had spent much of the last few years working in London but regularly returned to the family home in Rousden.”