TRAFFIC was gridlocked in Weymouth after an accident involving a 14-year-old boy.

Tempers flared yesterday as vehicles were brought to a standstill at the start of one of the resort's busiest weeks of the year.

All routes out of town were jammed and drivers were delayed for up to three hours.

Even motorists making their way across town faced an agonising crawl and journeys that usually took 10 minutes were bumped up to an hour and a half.

Some irate drivers even forced their way past police road blocks in a desperate attempt to get home.

The drama began at 4.30pm when a boy was in collision with a Vauxhall Cavalier saloon outside the Weymouth Bay Holiday Park on Preston Road.

It is believed the boy, on holiday from Berkshire, had just got off a bus when the accident happened.

He was airlifted to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester by the Dorset and Somerset air ambulance where he was treated for head injuries.

Meanwhile, police were forced to close the A353 Preston Road between Chalbury Corner in Weymouth and Warmwell Cross because of the accident and motorists were diverted on to the already clogged A354 Dorchester Road.

Drivers who tried to find a way round the chaos by using back roads between Weymouth and Dorchester were faced with similar problems.

An hour after the accident it was reported that vehicles were queuing nose to tail between Weymouth, Dorchester and Warmwell Cross.

A police spokesman said: "Disappointingly, some drivers chose to ignore the road closure signs. This added to the chaos and made the police's job harder.

"We had to enforce the road closures because of this."

Police were forced to open one lane of the A353 to ease the congestion but the road was not fully open again until 7.30pm.

The injured boy received several stitches to a head wound and was kept in hospital overnight for observation.