M40 Shooting
Was anyone else caught up in the chaos around this?
I was driving back from London yesterday and came up to some queuing traffic near junction 12 Northbound.
My TMC wasn't showing any delay, there was nothing on the radio and no police cars so I didn't turn off and I ended up at a standstill just beyond the bridge alongside the entry sliproad.
Where I sat stationary for an hour while all around me people got out of their cars and looked longingly at the bridge and the entry slip.
I hit the traffic around 3:30pm - an hour AFTER they shut the road, but the police and highway offices obviously didn't bother telling anyone the road was shut ... madness really.
After about an hour a highway officer did appear and start diverting traffic up the exit slip road.
By this time most people near me had started going up the entry slip the wrong way to get off the road.
I held off from temptation as long as I could, but in the end there were only a handful of us left .. even the lorries did it.
So I went for it and found another highway car at the top of the slip road directing us out and away from the Motorway.
There were lots of people who didn't come off and instead moved forward to fill the space created by exiting vehicles. Madness when you consider that the road was shut for a further 5 hours.
What I can't understand is why the police just leave people there. Why can't they reverse the flow and get people off the motorway. So that they can do what I did, without being branded irresponsible and dangerous?
I have 2 small kids in the car and sitting in a traffic jam for 6 hours just because it's naughty to do otherwise is nonsense.
Was anyone else snarled up?
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