Gridlock after head-on smash

A lorry and a minibus were involved.

Three people escaped with what police described as minor injuries despite the fact that the Ford Transit minibus in which they were travelling was wrecked in the collision.

But the effects of last Friday's crash were far-reaching.

Police said that at about 1pm a car eastbound in Hastings Road had slowed near the junction with Third Avenue.

A following lorry which was towing an equipment trailer skidded in the wet and veered into the opposing carriageway, hitting the Transit.

Sussex Police Traffic Division officers immediately set up a traffic diversion.

But to a situation already complicated by the heavy rain and severe congestion on the A259 trunk road at De La Warr Road was added a third factor - a bus broke down in the diversion route in Dorset Road.

At the peak of the gridlock, tailbacks of traffic spread back into Bexhill Road, St Leonards; to the junction of Dorset Road and Ashdown Road; back along Wrestwood Road and down King Offa Way.