POLICE have named the motorist thought to have lain undiscovered for up to 12 hours after his car careered off a Hampshire road.

Carl David Symes, 20, was travelling west through the New Forest on the A35 when his car crashed through a fence and plunged down an embankment near the Old Station Tea Rooms at Holmsley, near Burley.

The crash is believed to have occurred at about 11.45pm on Monday - but the wreckage was not found until 1.20pm yesterday.

However, the crash went unnoticed until one of the New Forest agisters was called out to repair the fence.

Police closed the A35 Lyndhurst to Christchurch road for five hours while officers investigated the tragedy.

Mr Symes, of Swordfish Drive, Christchurch, is thought to have lost control as he crossed a bridge over what used to be the Brockenhurst to Ringwood railway line, which closed in the mid-1960s.

Police sources confirmed that the accident appeared to have happened several hours before the body was found. Hundreds of unsuspecting motorists are thought to have driven past the scene.

The A35 was closed between its junctions with Holmsley Road and the Rhinefield Ornamental Drive, near Brockenhurst, for several hours.

The accident occurred at a spot known as the Holmsley Dip, scene of several serious crashes in the past few years - including one in which two men were killed.

Anyone who may have witnessed or who has information about the crash is asked to contact the Operation Flux enquiry team at Totton roads policing unit on 0845 045 4545 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.