COMMUTERS were faced with rush-hour traffic chaos as a one-vehicle accident on a dual carriageway led to knock-on tailbacks on the A1(M) today.

The problems developed after a silver/grey Audi TT veered off the eastbound carriageway of the A690 and struck a lamppost in heavy rainfall just past the entrance to the Ramside Hall Hotel, at Carrville, near Durham, at about 7.10am.

Firefighters cut the male motorist from the wreckage of the car and he was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, suffering what police described as “non-life threatening injuries”, including a broken right leg.

A stretch of the A690 eastbound carriageway, from the A1(M) junction 62 at Carrville interchange, to Pittington Lane, at Rainton Gate, was closed while the debris of the car was removed and electricity engineers from NEDL attended the damaged lamppost, which was left in a possibly dangerous condition with wires potentially exposed to the heavy morning downpours.

Queues of traffic soon developed on the slip roads leading off the A1(M) at Carrville, with traffic heading towards Sunderland advised to use the Blind Lane interchange at Chester-le-Street.

It also affected Durham-bound traffic amid the morning rush-hour.

By 9.45am Durham Police said officers at the scene were awaiting the arrival of Highways Agency representatives before coning off the inside lane of the A690 to allow the road to re-open to eastbound traffic.

Passing motorists on the westbound side of the A690 stopping to take photographs of the wreckage and using their phones were issued with warnings by traffic officers.

The road reopened at about 10am this morning.