Essex Police are telling impatient drivers to stop nuisance calls to emergency numbers after a string of complaints from people caught in traffic caused by a fatal crash near Chelmsford.
A stretch of the A12 was closed at lunchtime today (May 14) while police dealt with a single-vehicle crash that left 68-year-old woman from Colchester dead.
The northbound carriageway was closed between junction 6 at Galleywood and junction 7 for the A130, and the knock on effect was gridlock in the city centre.
Despite the seriousness of the accident, drivers fed up of the jams made their frustrations known by calling police, clogging up vital phone lines.
The Essex Police control room Twitter account tweeted to say: "We've had a serious incident on the A12 today and we have had calls into us with people are telling us that they are late, not moved or need to be home soon to sleep for work tomorrow etc.
"This isn't a policing reason to call and our officers need to deal with the incident which is a serious one.
"Once they are able to clear lanes or a lane they will.
"But if you do get caught in traffic due to an incident in the future please be patient. Calling us doesn't speed anything up, it comes down to the incident and how serious it is."
The victim, who was driving a white Hyundai i10 on the northbound carriageway, died at the scene.
Essex Police have notified her next of kin.
Officers are urging anyone with information or dash cam footage to call Serious Collision Investigations Unit of Essex Police on 101 quoting incident 522 of 14/05.
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