An undertaker says he has “never seen such courtesy before” after a funeral procession got stuck in gridlock.

Luke Allum Funeral Directors in Broadway, Sheerness, praised motorists who gave them priority after struggling to get to a scheduled cremation.

On Friday, drivers were stuck for hours after a lorry jackknifed along the A249 Maidstone-bound.

The road was blocked, which caused long delays from the B2231 Sheppey Way to B2005 Grovehurst Road.

At the time, motorists were unable to access the Sheppey Crossing.

Owner Luke planned to travel from his business on the Island, to the Garden of England Crematorium in Sheppey Way, Bobbing.

However, what was typically a 20-minute drive, turned into more than a two-hour journey.

“It was absolutely horrendous,” he said. “To be fair, everyone was in the same situation and everyone was in a rush.

“But I couldn’t thank them enough.”

The 31-year-old has been running the company for last six years and says he has “never seen such courtesy before” from drivers during that time.

“It was just little things,” Luke explained. “The lights were changing and there was a bit of a gap – people were flashing us through.

“We started creeping and weaving through the traffic. Some were letting us out at roundabouts.”

Luke had left early to pass the family’s house in Minster for 9.30am, and then arrive at the crematorium for 10am.

Due to the traffic, he made the decision to call and tell them to meet him there instead.

He said: “We managed to get there for 10.10am.

“With funerals, once one is very late, every other one is delayed for the rest of the day.

“If you miss it, you have to wait for the next available slot. We would have had to wait until 3pm.

“We were quite lucky and the family were really understanding.”

All six funerals that took place on Friday were able to run on time.

As a result, Luke decided to post a message of thanks online.

It said: “This morning was a great example of how much of a fantastic community the Isle of Sheppey is.

“We had a funeral out and unfortunately we got caught up in the standstill traffic.

“However, our wonderful Islanders who were also caught up in the standstill gave us right of way to get off the Island which enabled our funeral to go ahead as planned.

“If you were one of those wonderful people who did this, we would like to express our appreciation and how grateful we are for doing this.”

The post has since been shared dozens of times and received more than 250 likes.

Luke added: “There’s a lot of negativity on the Island.

“The response I got from it was great, and it was a bit of positive news for once.”