[NFS]

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?

[silverbmwz3]

How did you know you weren't going to meet Carlos hacking it down the entry road the other way ?

I agree, I can't understand why the police don't do that.

[dxb335d]

the police can be a bit stupid sometimes NFS, sometimes they can sort situations well other times with less experianced cops things go a bit HAYWIRE

how long exactly were u stuck in it!! least you had climate

hope the kids didnt give you too much greif


Carlos

[Evil Diesel]

I also don't understand why they leave the road closed for so long for any reason.

There used to be an urgency to reopen major routes but now they leave the road closed for hours even for fairly minor accidents.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by silverbmwz3

How did you know you weren't going to meet Carlos hacking it down the entry road the other way ?

I agree, I can't understand why the police don't do that.

I left it as long as I could really .. In the hour I sat there no emergency services vehicles went by ... since the incident was between 13 and 14 they would have just joined at 13, which is a limited interchange junction so I couldn't have got off there.

By the time I went up there were 2 clear lanes and I didn't even need to go on the hard shoulder, just straight up the entry slip. I was pretty nervous about it though and quite uncomfortable with doing it. I actually followed 2 lorries up reasoning that no-one was going to go charging into them.

Originally Posted by dxb335d

the police can be a bit stupid sometimes NFS, sometimes they can sort situations well other times with less experianced cops things go a bit HAYWIRE

how long exactly were u stuck in it!! least you had climate

hope the kids didnt give you too much greif

Carlos

I was only stuck for an hour, but if I had followed the rules it would have been at least 5 1/2 hours, by which time the kids would have turned feral.

[peppernick]

if I had followed the rules it would have been at least 5 1/2 hours,

There are special circumstances you can tell the rules to F off. I was stucked for 20 mins or so, blasted down the hardshoulder for 1/3 miles till I came to an exit. It's just plain ridiculous sitting in stationary traffic with no intention of moving.

[Jotuns]

Crass joke coming

The jam must have been a nightmare, bet you needed that like a hole in the head... !

[squeezebm]