Roads Minister Duncan Gay has praised the "exceptional" performance of emergency services and traffic crews in clearing the major accident on the Harbour Bridge on Wednesday morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"The response was just incredible," Mr Gay said.
Government agencies typically expect it to take about three hours to clear major multi-car accidents in which participants have serious injuries.
But Mr Gay said it took much less time to clear Wednesday morning's accident, despite the difficult location on the Harbour Bridge.
"70 minutes to clear a multi-car accident with people with injuries on the bridge was exceptional and I praise the police, the emergency services people for the work that they did to be able to clear it as quickly as they could in that instance," the minister said.
"Obviously we have to be more careful when there are injured people involved, and we were. And I also thank the public, because their patience was terrific this morning. They understood that we were doing the best we can."
The Roads Minister was in Blakehurst on Wednesday morning announcing, with Premier Mike Baird, $300 million to be spent in the next decade upgrading roads in southern Sydney.
Both linked the traffic chaos on Wednesday morning with the government's infrastructure promises and the opposition's plan to cancel some motorway projects.
"It highlights that we need alternate routes," Mr Gay said.
"When we have this main route, of the bridge, the tunnel and the eastern distributor running at full capacity even one small accident let along a major accident causes a problem."
The Labor Party have said they would not build the third stage of the WestConnex project, a tunnel linking St Peters to Rozelle. The government plans to extend that tunnel under the harbour to northern Sydney, providing a western road bypass of the CBD. Labor does not support this project which, even on the government's plans, would not be built for another decade.
Mr Baird said: "This city has an unbelievable amount of congestion and it is getting worse.
"And what is quite stark today, Labor have made a promise to cancel the additional road crossing across the harbour."
After the accident just before 7am on Wednesday, one person was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a serious condition and another person was transported in a stable condition to the Royal North Shore Hospital, a spokesperson for Ambulance NSW said.
