MOTORISTS on a busy commuter route faced an evening of misery after a worker left the temporary traffic lights in order to rush to his wife’s side at hospital.

The B478 Playhatch Road was closed in February following severe flooding, but Oxfordshire County Council re-opened one lane of the main road in March, with temporary road signals manned during rush hour.

But on Tuesday evening motorists took to social media in outrage because the lights were moving from green to red too quickly to let the long queues of traffic through.

@lewis_borges complained on Twitter he had been trapped between Pound Lane, Sonning, and the lights for more than an hour because no one was operating them.

He tweeted: “It took 65 mins to get from Pound Lane to the roadworks tonight. Total shambles! @OxfordshireCC no one appeared 2 be operating the temp lights manually on Playhatch Rd last nite. Is this goin 2 b the norm? @Playhatch_POW”

@Playhatch_POW tweeted: “Another night of misery thanks to @ianhudspeth @DNimmoSmit1 @OxfordshireCC for people living and trying to get through sonning.”

Normally a worker is stationed at the traffic lights from 8am to 10am and between 4pm to 6pm each day to make sure that large tailbacks do not develop during the rush hour. However, on Tuesday night the worker received a phone call telling him his wife had been rushed to hospital and he left his post to be by her side.

But motorists complained the lights were not working properly and a police officer

was eventually drafted in at around 7pm to control the traffic and make sure people

could get through.

Kirsty Gilbert, posting on the Caversham Gossip Girls Facebook group, said: “My husband just got back from there. He said the lights are down and a policeman is letting people pass but very slow.”

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Paul Smith insisted the lights had been put on automatic, and said: “This meant that each direction received the same green light time regardless of traffic build-up in any one direction.

“The county council is looking at what contingency planning can be looked at to cope with such very rare and unforeseen circumstances.”

Work to stabilise and underpin the flood-damaged road which was under water for six weeks began on Monday and is expected to take eights weeks, finishing in November.