M6 gridlocked after car and lorry crash at Spaghetti Junction spilling 200 litres of fuel

Motorists suffered more than six hours of delays on roads across the Black Country after the crash happened at around 6.45am and saw one woman taken to hospital.

The accident took place on the southbound carriageway of Junction 6 and Highways England stopped traffic completely for around an hour due to the 'large diesel spill' caused by the crash.

The motorway was not fully back open again until around 1pm as a result of the 200-litre clean-up, causing knock-on delays on roads across the region.

A woman in her 30s who was in the car was treated by the paramedics before being taken to Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called by the fire service at 7.25am to reports of a collision between a car and lorry.

"One ambulance attended the scene. One patient from the car was treated for minor chest pain, and possibly back pain, and was immobilised on a stretcher before being taken to hospital."

There were delays right across the Black Country as traffic built up in West Bromwich, Walsall, Great Barr and Smethwick.

At one point, the delays were three hours long, and stretched from Spaghetti Junction up to as far as Junction 10a of the M54 for Wolverhampton.

The delays also extended to the northbound carriageway of M5 Junction 3 for Halesowen.

Highways England's operations manager Neil Taylor said crews had been 'working hard to get the carriageway completely opened as quickly as possible.'

The hard shoulder at Junction 6 was opened to motorists at around 8.50am but it was another four hours until all lanes were back open.

Elsewhere in the Black Country, a bus broke down on the Wolverhampton ring road, blocking one lane at Bilston Street Island and causing delays for drivers heading into the city.