A trucker who crashed a lorry and blocked a junction on a major road was four times over the limit, police said.

Durham Constabulary said junction 59 of the A1 near Darlington was blocked for hours early on Saturday.

The force tweeted a photo of the crashed HGV and said: “This driver of this HGV was four times over the drink-drive limit when officers from @DurhamRPU stopped him in the early hours of Saturday morning.

“The driver also blocked junction 59 for several hours while we awaited recovery of the vehicle – let this be a lesson.”

The force’s Roads Policing Unit replied, saying: “Don’t drink and drive.

“This could have so easily ended in a fatality.”