Three rush-hour crashes sparked traffic chaos on the A127.

The accidents even left emergency crews confused, when paramedics failed to turn up to one of the smashes because two of them involved similar casualties.

The first accident, which closed part of the A127, happened at the A132 Wickford turn-off on the Southend-bound track.

At 8am yesterday, a woman in her 20s lost control of her black Ford Fiesta, veered off the road and smashed into the A132 sign before ploughing into a lamp post.

Four fire crews from Basildon, Chelmsford and Wickford raced to the scene and had to cut the trapped woman from her car.

An Essex fire spokesperson said: "The casualty was trapped for around 40 minutes. Firefighters removed the roof of the car in order to get the woman out."

She suffered from a back injury and was later taken to Basildon Hospital by paramedics.

The crash caused tailbacks after police closed the A127 between the Basildon and A132 exits.

Less than half an hour later, police were called to a three-car pile-up between Progress Road and the Rayleigh Weir.

The crash between the green Peugeot, silver Ford Mondeo and blue Citroen Saxo also left one woman suffering a back injury.

But, in the confusion, paramedics took around 30-minutes to arrive at the accident scene after believing the call related to the earlier crash at Nevendon that had already been dealt with.

The chaos did not end there and around 20 minutes after the second smash, a motorbike and a car were involved in a minor shunt around a quarter of a mile away on Progress Road.

The section of the A127 was closed for more than two hours.

The road reopened to one line of traffic at 8.10am and was fully re-opened two and a half hours later at 10.30am.