HERE we go again.

Just two days into the New Year and a notorious Hampshire road was mired in traffic chaos once again.

An overturned car on the A31 at Picket Post, near Ringwood, caused four-mile tailbacks towards Stoney Cross and delayed drivers for hours.

It comes just weeks after a spate of accidents, car fires and breakdowns that left despairing drivers calling for answers to constant queues and delays – including an astonishing seven crashes in seven days at the end of November.

Police, firefighters and paramedics were all called to the incident in the westbound carriageway at around 4.15pm and it is understood there were no injuries.

Normal traffic resumed shortly before 6pm.

Historically the 12-mile stretch of road between the M27 at Cadnam and the Ashley Heath roundabout near Ringwood is one of the most notorious routes in the south.

Hairdresser Jade Clark, 16, was riding her moped along the Ringwood-to-Ashley Heath section of the route when she was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 2013.

Health and safety executive Brian Hampton, of Ashford in Kent, was later jailed for six years for causing the crash and then trying to evade justice.

As reported by the Daily Echo, local councillors in Ringwood had urged the Highways Agency to reduce the speed limit from 70mph to 50mph to cut the number of crashes and keep the traffic flowing.

People who live in Southampton and work in Bournemouth – or vice versa – have been among the hardest hit by the delays over the years as their daily commute often turns into a nightmare, especially when roadworks on the M27 add to delays.

The shortage of exits and the absence of a hard shoulder mean even a relatively minor incident can cause massive hold-ups – leaving drivers to sit in long queues waiting for traffic to start moving again.

Plans to improve the road were recently unveiled as part of a £15billion investment in Britain’s road network – with the road to be widened into three lanes.

New Forest and Ringwood councillors have welcomed the news as “tremendous”.