DRIVERS were faced with delays when a car crash and burst water main combined to create a traffic nightmare on a busy single carriageway road.

Emergency services were called to the A228 near Paddock Wood at around 10.30am on Thursday after a car overturned and careered into a ditch at the junction of Whetsted Road.

The driver, a woman in her mid thirties, was taken to Kent and Sussex Hospital for precautionary checks after firefighters freed her from the blue Ford Fiesta using hydraulic cutting equipment.

Motorists and nearby residents described how traffic came to a standstill on the narrow single carriageway road and said the gridlock was made worse by burst water pipes further up the road at Colts Hill.

Colts Hill resident Carol Mackonochie, who lives on the A228, said: "The pipes had burst at around 4am this morning but they couldn’t repair them until after the rush hour."

And Mrs Mackonochie, who has been campaigning for a bypass at Colts Hill for several years, added: "It’s pathetic, any small incident such as this causes chaos."

Another driver caught in the traffic, Margaret Brown from Maidstone, said the road was too small for the amount of traffic using it.

She said: "This goes to show why they shouldn’t move the obstetrics unit from Maidstone Hospital to Pembury."