Motorists have had trouble getting to work this morning because an accident in Blue Bell Hill caused people to detour through Medway.

Four vehicles were involved in a crash halfway down the A229 southbound towards Maidstone at 4.45am.

To make it worse, two further vehiclescollided and there was also a fuel spill that had to be cleared up.

Traffic was stationary after a lane was closed by the Chatham Road junction of the A229.

Daniel Towers, a landscape gardener from Rochester said the traffic was a real problem on Blue Bell Hill at about 6.30am.

Rather than take the A229, people instead detoured through Rochester and on the Esplanade traffic was backed up and unmoving for more than half a mile towards the town.

Where the road splits into two lanes approaching Rochester bridge, motorists were driving the wrong way up the road and into oncoming vehicles to get to skip the queues and turn right at the lights.

What is normally a two minute drive took people half an hour this morning.

One motorist, Mr Towers, 37, said: “I usually leave my house about 6.20am and get to work on the other side of Maidstone at about 7am, but didn’t arrive until 7.20am because of the traffic on Blue Bell Hill.

“It was a nightmare.”

Further queues were reported back to the Lord Lees Roundabout, to Badger Road, Lordswood, and through Princes Park, Walderslade, and onto the M2 slip road.

A police spokesman said: “Police were called at 4:50 am to a report of a four vehicle collision on the Maidstone bound carriageway of the A229. Additionally, a further two vehicles collided.

“No serious injuries have been reported and the road is fully open."

A spokesman from Medway fire station said: “There was a lot of oil in the road.”