HIGHWAY chiefs say a wall damaged when a car smashed into it will be repaired as soon as possible.

The A167 at Ferryhill was closed to traffic early yesterday, after the accident.

A car hit the wall, which overlooks the trunk road at Ferryhill cut, in the Dean Bank area of town, just before midnight on Tuesday.

The driver of the car was not injured, but the wall was damaged and had to be partly demolished.

Police closed the road below as a precaution against falling masonry and diversions were put in place.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency said: "The road was closed for about two hours while the wall was made safe.

"We took down some bits of the wall and some temporary concrete barriers have gone up.

"We will be doing a full inspection of the wall and implementing a full repair as soon as we can."

The wall, which protects a drop of about 40ft on to the A167, had to undergo emergency repairs last summer.

Vandals had climbed on to it and loosened bricks, which fell on to the road and narrowly missed passing motorists.