POLICE have been urged to re-open roads more quickly in future, following complaints about the length of time the A64 was shut after a crash last week.

The road network across York was hit by traffic chaos when motorists were diverted through the city for up to six hours after the three-vehicle accident, which happened on the dual carriageway at 11.15am last Tuesday.

York council leader James Alexander said yesterday he had received complaints from residents, one of whom had referred to the incident as “carmageddon”.

He said police did a very difficult job, but he was concerned about the time taken to reopen the road, which “no doubt had a large effect on the local economy for the day”. He said he wanted to ensure such long closures were not seen again.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said officers had finished their investigation into the accident by 3pm and the eastbound carriageway reopened at 3.15pm, but the westbound carriageway was then in the hands of the Highways Agency which cleared the debris, and she understood it then reopened at about 5.30pm.

She said: “Police need to close the road to enable the recovery of casualties and to ensure a thorough investigation is carried out to bring those responsible to justice. In this case, there was the added need to preserve evidence in relation to the suspected crimes linked to the driver who was later charged with eight offences.”

Three people were injured in the accident, but none suffered life-threatening injuries.