While most commuters enjoy the summer holiday traffic lull, for those who have to face the Dartford crossing there has been no let up to the daily hell.

A broken down vehicle just this morning caused miles of tailbacks as both tunnels were briefly closed.

Last Tuesday the west bore tunnel was closed yet again from 9.15am after an accident involving a car and a lorry at the tunnel exit near junction 31 for Thurrock.

Vehicles were queueing back along the M25 to the Orpington turn off and along the A2 long after the road was reopened three hours later.

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: “Two patients were treated at the scene. Both were conscious and breathing. They were taken to Basildon and Thurrock Hospitals.”

There are hold ups every day because of the amount of traffic on the road, especially at peak times.

Recent roadworks at the A282 junction 1b roundabout (Princes Road Interchange) have not helped, but the problems continue every time there is an accident. With no realistic alternative route, the traffic piles up.

August has seen one major incident after another, gridlocking the road network from east of Bexley to Cuxton in the west, and stretching south of Orpington.

A motorcycle crash closed the east bore tunnel on August 2 for hours, as did another crash on August 10 also involving a motorcyclist who had to be taken to hospital.

On August 5, escaped horses caused huge delays from the early hours in the morning. One horse was shot dead on the road by armed police near the tunnel exit and the road was reopened at 2pm.

The congestion, already heavy with the usual Friday traffic, had clogged up the road network in north west Kent.

The A225 though Sutton-at-Hone, the B260 through Darenth, the A226 through Stone and the A206 through Greenhithe were at a standstill.

Two more accidents on the A2 at Bexley and at Gravesend West exacerbated the problems. It was gone 8pm before the traffic cleared – more than 12 hours after the initial incident.

The worst of it came on August 11, when a female driver crashed into barriers on the QEII bridge at around 2am.

She and a teenage passenger had to be taken to hospital and the bridge remained closed for around 10 hours while a police investigation was carried out.

Eventually two lanes were opened with the others closed off so Highways England workers could repair 30 metres of destroyed barriers.

It was 12 hours until the road was reopened completely, and it was into the evening before the built up traffic had subsided.

A spokesman for Highways England said: “We have a depot at the crossing so are not delayed in getting out to incidents.

“In this case there was a police investigation going on which meant we could not carry out any work initially.

“We had people ready and waiting, and as soon as we were able to, we opened part of the carriageway, leaving a lane closed to protect our workers replacing the barrier.”