DRIVERS were slammed for abandoning their cars and blocking the carriageway after a serious crash caused hours of delays on the A12. 

Emergency services descended on the Southbound carriageway of the A12 at the Boreham Interchange at around 6.30pm last night, following a crash on the slip road leaving the carriageway. 

The busy road was closed in both directions for several hours, with the Southbound carriageway remaining closed until shortly after 11pm. 

The northbound carriageway, heading towards Colchester, reopened shortly before 9pm. 

Rob Brettell, inspector for Essex Police's serious collision investigation unit posted a series of tweets criticising drivers who had left their vehicles, and were blocking emergency services and highways trucks reaching the scene. 

Essex Police's force control room also tweeted to warn drivers not to phone 999 to "moan about the traffic".

Mr Brettell tweeted: "I have just arrived on scene at a serious RTC on the #A12 #Boreham we are aware of a large tail back and will be turning vehicles round shortly, please stay with your cars, be patient we are working hard to free the traffic.

"We have extra police units on route and working from the back to get you moving even quicker from both directions now - this is a serious incident and we need to ensure we conduct a full investigation for everyone’s benefit.

"We need people to return to their cars, we can’t reopen the road until drivers are with them, it’s too dangerous to leave abandoned cars with no lights on in the main road, this is delaying getting people moving now.

"We can’t get the highways truck through as people have abandoned there cars, arnt leaving a gap and blocking our vehicles we are struggling to get through, we are turning vehicles around - we can only apologise and keep pushing through - please make a gap and we will get through.

"Both directions main carriageway are now open on the #A12 by junction 18 - we understand the frustrations however we were unable to run the highways lorry the wrong direction due to work being completed on the scene. This is a large complex investigation, we must get it right"

Although some drivers came under criticism, many took the long delays with a pinch of salt.

One took to Twitter to ask for snacks to be passed down the queue, while another asked if anyone fancied a quick game of football.