Motorway Closures Due To Accidents

[RJRB 688]

Another local closure today on M1 south following one on Friday.

I hope that no one has been badly injured but sometimes wonder why the motorway remains closed for so long.

Todays accident happened at 5.30 a.m and the motorway remains closed at 1.00 p.m. as accident investigation takes place.

I can understand prolonged closure if there is fuel spillage or other carnage but sometimes wonder if there should be more urgency to re open the road to prevent massive tailbacks.

I acknowledge that I am no expert in such matters,but having driven extensively in Germany ,they do seem to put more resources and emphasis on keeping roads open

 

[francypants 441]

According to reports,  the accident this morning between Jct 35a and 36 southbound involved a pedestrian.  Therefore I'm presuming it was a very serious incident.  Police erected a screen to shield the incident from traffic going northbound which also points to it being very serious.

What I can't understand is there was nothing on BBC news lunchtime. Surely something which closes the M1 for hours is classed as news worthy of being broadcast.

[tinfoilhat 11]

Might be worth watching The Motorway on channel 5. Its showing all the behind the scenes stuff at the highways agency, on our stretch of the M1 as well.

[taxman 12]

News report on BBC website. A man has died.

[francypants 441]

Tragic for all concerned. 

The man, his family, the vehicle driver and emergency services.

 

[geared 306]

One of the pictures on the news had a big HGV straddling several lanes, possibly hit someone who'd broken down?

 

 

[*_ash_* 88]

5 hours ago, RJRB said:

but sometimes wonder why the motorway remains closed for so long.

Todays accident happened at 5.30 a.m and the motorway remains closed at 1.00 p.m. as accident investigation takes place.

I can understand prolonged closure if there is fuel spillage or other carnage but sometimes wonder if there should be more urgency to re open the road to prevent massive tailbacks.

 

 

There was a programme on last week about motorways*, and it was pretty good. It showed the reason for this. An accident and when potential fatality/or actual fatality, then the road was closed until the camera people could find footage to see if potentially a crime scene. When they couldn't find anything on the cameras, the cops had to keep it closed for longer, in case someone involved died (as it was serious). That's what takes the time... trying to work out what happened.

 

 

*I don't normally record these as generally daytime trash, with: earlier on... coming up later... we'll find out what happens later... next... what happened earlier on recap.. etc, this was on at night though so I recorded it.

3 hours ago, tinfoilhat said:

Might be worth watching The Motorway on channel 5. Its showing all the behind the scenes stuff at the highways agency, on our stretch of the M1 as well.

ah yes, reading on, this was the programme I watched.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by *_ash_*

[Pyrotequila 402]

The main thing that I've been wondering is what on earth a pedestrian was doing on the M1 at 5am?

Nobody seems to have raised this question yet in the news.

[geared 306]

10 hours ago, Pyrotequila said:

The main thing that I've been wondering is what on earth a pedestrian was doing on the M1 at 5am?

Nobody seems to have raised this question yet in the news.

It's usually someone who's broken down.

Either getting out of their car, trying to change a tyre or worst of all just standing on the carriageway.

 

A guy was killed last year IIRC, car broke down on the M1 so he just got out and stood next to it.

 

[alchresearch 214]

1 hour ago, geared said:

A guy was killed last year IIRC, car broke down on the M1 so he just got out and stood next to it.

 

Also in 2018:

 

Quote

Both the victim and driver of the Nissan got out of the car at about 21.40 BST, South Yorkshire Police said.

 

About 15 minutes later, the Mercedes smashed into the car pushing the Nissan forward and hitting the passenger, a spokeswoman said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-45474236

[RJRB 688]

Obviously there has been a serious accident today and my sympathy to anyone directly or indirectly involved.

I believe the motorway was closed from around 8.15a.m to 4.30 p.m. with ensuing tailbacks and traffic jams on numerous roads around Sheffield.

Other than fuel on the road or damage to the carriageway this still seems to be an inordinate length of time for the motorway to be completely closed.

This is pretty much the same as my first post and I still think that more resources should be deployed to investigate and clear the problem.

[geared 306]

Diesel spills cause lengthy closures as the tarmac is ruined, needs ripping up and re-laying.

Obviously thats pretty time consuming, especially when the vehicles needed to do the job will have to battle through all the traffic to get on site.

 

If multiple lanes have been contaminated it's just going to drag the job out, having it finished in a day is a pretty good achievement really.