Police, contractors and county council officials were furious when heavy goods lorry drivers ignored diversion signs after a sewer excavation collapsed.

Two workmen who were in the hole on the A4130 Abingdon Road, Didcot, had a lucky escape as it suddenly caved in.

They were working 10ft below the surface of the road on new foul and storm water drains to serve homes at Ladygrove when an articulated lorry carrying heavy plant caused the excavation to collapse.

Geoff Allen, a spokesman for contractors John O'Flynn Developments, said: "The cause of the subsidence was a combination of vibration from heavy goods traffic along the Abingdon road and the heavy rains which saturated the trench."

His workmen escaped unhurt, although police and county officials immediately closed the busy road which is part of Didcot's northern by-pass system carrying heavy goods lorries to and from nearby Southmead Industrial Park and Milton Business Park.

But contractors and local residents complained some heavy goods drivers, including drivers making deliveries to Didcot's Tesco superstore in Wallingford Road, did not heed signs diverting traffic through the town centre.

Mr Allen claimed: "Drivers of Tesco lorries even removed diversion signs and barriers and continued to use the Abingdon Road."

The excavations are expected to be completed next week.

Parents and residents in Tamar Way on the Ladygrove housing estates said lorries were also taking a short cut to avoid the town centre putting children at risk, especially where the road passes All Saints Primary School.

David Bailey, a transport manager at Exel Logisitics Tesco warehouse at Southmead Park, told the Oxford Mail all their drivers were alerted to the temporary diversions, although he acknowledged some Tesco drivers initially ignored the signs.

"Our phones were red hot with complaints," said Mr Bailey, who blamed drivers from depots in South Wales and the Midlands, who were confused about the diversions at Didcot.

However, he said, drivers and transport managers at all Tesco depots had been reminded about the temporary diversions and he was confident the problem had now been resolved.