Crossword Genius

Electrician after a second stops and leaves van (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

sparks

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'electrician' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'stops and leaves van' is the wordplay.
'stops' becomes 'parks' (as in parking a car).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'leaves van' becomes 's' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'parks' after 's' is 'SPARKS'.

'after a second' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sparks that I've seen before include "Fiery particles emitted by fire" , "Bright discharges" , "Momentary flashes of light" , "Radio officer" , "Fiery particles for informal electrician" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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