A 24-YEAR-OLD man from Newton Abbot is recovering in hospital after being involved in a collision with a van as he walked across the new South Devon Highway outside Kingskerswell.

The casualty was rushed by ambulance to Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital after the accident just before 4am on Saturday.

A police spokesman this morning said the man, who has not been named, was in a stable condition.

He suffered head injuries and was reported to be slipping in and out of consciousness at the scene. It was initially feared he had suffered life-threatening injuries.

The road was closed for six hours while accidents investigators examined the location, some 1,000 metres south of Penn Inn on the Torquay-bound carriageway.

The van driver, aged 49 and from Dawlish, was not hurt.