POLICE have made an arrest following a crash more than a year ago that left a man fighting for his life.

Officers made several appeals for information after John Conibeer, now 33, was left in a critical condition after being hit by a Ford Transit van which drove off in the early hours of Saturday, February 17, 2018.

Mr Conibeer from Newport had got out of a Honda Civic car he was a passenger in after it had collided with a wall on the A48 at the top of Pwllmeyric Hill, near Chepstow.

Over the last 13 months, his family says he has undergone 62 hours of surgery.

Gwent Police said on Monday (March 25) that officers had arrested a 43-year-old Rogiet man in connection with the hit-and- run investigation.

A force spokesperson said: “Following a road traffic collision on the A48, Pwllmeyric, Chepstow in the early hours of Saturday, February 17, 2018, a 43-year-old man from the Rogiet area of Caldicot has been arrested for causing serious injury by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice.

“He has been released under investigation,” they added.

On the anniversary of the crash last month, Mr Conibeer’s father Anthony Conibeer made a fresh appeal for justice for his son, saying: “It’s now been nearly 12 months since our son John was left for dead on the side of the road at the top of Pwllmeyric Hill near Chepstow.

“He was left choking on his own blood, his leg smashed behind his back, broken and damaged, his body damaged in so many ways it was unbelievable.

“He was just left there like a piece of discarded meat.”

He was rushed to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, and later transferred to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where he was placed into an induced coma.

“This year has been the worst year of our lives,” Mr Conibeer added.

“The pain that John has gone through, only he can tell you.

“The heartache and stress that myself and our family has gone through [is] sometimes unbearable, the tears by the bucketful.”

He thanked people and medical staff for their ‘great support’, and said they hoped a four-hour operation in London last Thursday (March 21) would be his last major surgery.

“John’s surgery has gone well today. That’s now a total of 62 hours under the knife putting John back together,” he posted on Facebook at the time.

The same stretch of the A48 is a notorious accident blackspot, which was the scene of a five-car pile-up as recently in 2017, while a man died after a vehicle hit a wall in 2005 and a teenage girl passenger was left critically injured in a 2010 crash.

Councillors and police agreed to reduce the speed to 30mph on the Pwllmeyric stretch in 2017.