An MP is to raise concerns in Westminster over the mayhem that followed the lorry accident on the M62 this week.

Colne Valley’s Jason McCartney wants to look at new ways of reducing the traffic chaos in the aftermath of such an accident.

The busy motorway was shut for almost 20 hours and thousands of drivers were caught up in massive traffic jams - with some on the motorway stretching back 19 miles to Brighouse from the crash site near Milnrow.

Mr McCartney is expected to speak about the matter in the House of Commons tomorrow.

He said: “I’m asking a question on Thursday about the impact of the M62 closing and the knock-on congestion that is caused.

“I think we need to look at more exits across that part of the M62 so that if there are closures people have the opportunity to make a quicker exit and find a different route.”

Meanwhile, the Highways Agency which dealt with the aftermath of the crash has revealed the strategic planning involved in clearing the situation.

The serious crash saw three people injured when a lorry crossed over onto the opposite carriageway at Milnrow and hit 10 other vehicles

The lorry driver is seriously ill in hospital with a head injury.

The motorway was closed for 20 hours while contractors relaid 800 square metres of carriageway and erected 300 metres of conventional steel barriers.

But the Highways Agency said a number of factors led to more protracted delays including diesel on the carriageway.

A Highways spokesman said: “Con­trac­tors at the col­li­sion site faced a num­ber of chal­lenges due to the nature of the inci­dent and were engaged in assess­ing dam­age caused by the inci­dent.

“There was a sig­nif­i­cant diesel spill and sub­stan­tial dam­age to the cen­tral reser­va­tion bar­rier.

“Dur­ing the course of the after­noon, con­trac­tors and vehi­cle recov­ery oper­a­tors worked tire­lessly at the scene with lift and recov­ery oper­a­tions and also work­ing to move the load of the stricken HGV.

“It was loaded with a con­sign­ment of 44 tonnes of but­ter which was melt­ing to form a large amount of grease on the car­riage­way and fur­ther­more the diesel spilt from the tanks had dam­aged the road sur­face. The spillage was sig­nif­i­cant and the car­riage­way dam­age was pri­mar­ily on the west­bound car­riage­way where the HGV had come to rest.”

But whilst contractors were tasked with clearing the aftermath, Highways Officers were tasked with assisting police with diversions.

The spokesman added: “The event had severely dis­rupted our cus­tomers in the north west and north east and also areas in the north­ern regions of the mid­lands affect­ing jour­neys to Man­ches­ter Air­port for exam­ple.

“Dur­ing the inci­dent, bul­letins were reg­u­larly sent out with images from the scene for our cus­tomers to eval­u­ate the sever­ity of the acci­dent. There were dra­matic increases in jour­ney times which were in excess of two hours for our cus­tomers, preva­lent through­out the day and evening. We would like to thank our cus­tomers for their patience on the day and con­trac­tors for their hard work in restor­ing the M62 to its nor­mal condition.”