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Minor accident closes A4 for nine hours
Justin Davenport and Katharine Barney20.04.09
TRAFFIC in west London was brought to a standstill for more than nine hours today after a minor traffic accident.
The crash on the A4 near the Hammersmith Flyover took place at 3.10am — and the road only reopened just before 1pm.
Traffic was brought to a halt as teams worked to clear the wreckage.
The hold-up left motorists fuming. One said: “I have had to abandon my car and walk to a Tube station. We were just going nowhere.”
At one point there were queues stretching back more than eight miles and traffic on the A40 and A3 was also delayed.
However, there was confusion over who was to blame for the delays.
Scotland Yard said the delays were partly due to a lamp post which was damaged in the accident.
Transport for London, which is responsible for the road, said it had been shut on the orders of the police because they had declared it a “crime scene”.
He said: “We were not handed back the road until 12.59pm and we had it open within minutes. There was some debris in the road but the lamp post had not come down.”
A Met spokesman said: “The lamp post had to be sorted out by the council and we had to conduct a forensic examination of the scene and unfortunately it took time. This was a road traffic accident which needs to be properly investigated.”
The accident was caused by a driver in a silver BMW colliding with a lamp post. The driver, 22, and his passenger were both taken to hospital but their injuries were not described as serious.
Reader views (20)
I was stuck in it - I thought it was another 7/7 terrorist attack. Surely only something of that scale could cause this sort of havoc. Unbelievable. Man bumps into lampost and throws capital city into gridlock. Idiots.
- Dennis Greene, London
The MET were probably 'waterboarding' the lamppost for six hours trying to find evidence of terrorist activity.
- Tom, London
Accident: "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". By definition, no blame attached.
- Paul, London
Somebody should sue the Met for lost time, that would soon stop the imbeciles doing this.
- John, London
I drive in the UK when I visit and am always appalled by the long delays on the motorways. They seem to go out of their way to frustrate motorists. The last time I visited there was an accident at the A14/ A11 junction which closed the road for 6 hours. It had occurred about 6am, and when I passed the scene at 2pm there were a few big tow trucks and police standing around doing nothing. In contrast, we had had a fatality involving a motorcyclist on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco a few weeks before I left. The police did their measurements and had all lanes open in an hour and a half. It is no wonder you see such bad accidents on the motorways in the UK. People get frustrated by all the delays.
- Jenny, san francisco ca ( ex-londoner)
The Police have far too much authority to close roads in this Country. Even a Constable can decide to do it. With the major Road Networks and the chaos it causes permission should have to be sought from a chief Constable. This incident was aboslutely pathetic. No other country would tolerate a major road being closed for 9 hours unless there was a fatality."Crime scene". what a joke
- Hunter, London
NINE hours for an argument with a lamp post...........!!!?
- Radz, Expat!, Copenhagen , Denmark.
So a small group could cause a minor accident on each of the major roads into London and cause gridlock across the whole city?
When will common sense return to the police and local councils? How about back to basics, instead of worrying about 'terrorism' just get on with your day job!
- Manny Goldstein, London, UK
Overtime by the police no doubt going full blast.
They watch too much television I think.
- Michael, Kensington, UK
Just goes to show how completely useless the Labour Government have deliberately made the Met.
- Matt, London, UK
Jobsworth + Risk Assessment + Health&Safety+ Public Sector Time Sheets. Only 4hours?
- R Jones, Bristol UK
It sounds as if they needed Jack Warner (Dixon Of Dock Green)there he would have sorted it in 5 minutes with a friendly piece of advice to all involved including the lamppost.
- Mike Melbourne, Bedford England
I am a retired Police Traffic Officer from the "good old days"
Our priority was always to clear the accident scene and get traffic moving as soon as possible.
Now that we have special units just to deal with traffic accidents they have to justify their existence and deal with even minor, petty accidents as "crime scenes".
Utter, utter nonsense.
- Charles, Stanmore. London
Interesting collision of events, that on an ordinary day when occurring on their own, produce little interest.
What drove this was this rabid insistence that _someone_ must be blamed and bear the costs of any and every 'accident' that happens. When the first response of emergency or other gvt officials is "block it off and find out who caused it" - we've got a problem.
- Trunk, US
Rob , u sure it wasnt the lamposts fault? apparently one jumped out behind my wife when she was reversing and caused untold damage to our car, she swears it wasnt there when she looked in her mirror while doing her hair.
- Brian, Wiltshire
A crime scene! What was the crime? The crime is the stupid beauraucratic mess London has become. In Italy, I've been waved past road accidents where the bodies (unfortunately) were still in the road (but covered up). I'm not advocating the same for London but surely sense must prevail.
- Tom Cupples, Tourrettes, France
Good to see our traffic authorities joining the NHS,Politicians,Transport,and our Economy and becomming third world.This country is beyond a joke,absolute pathetic.
- David, london
You are so right, Ross. It took us two and a half hours from Brentford to Hammersmith this morning. Seeing as no one was fatally injured the "forensic examination" seems pretty pointless - I don't think it was the fault of the lamp post.
- Robin, Brentford, UK
Doubtless the gallant boys from the Highways Agency were too busy buying sarnies to deal with the problem.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
These things happen. The primary problem, isn't that the road had to be closed for 10 hours but that it highlights there is no reserve in the road infrastructure. There are no real alternative routes for drivers to take so as soon as a major road is closed, a huge area doesn't just slow down; it grinds to a halt. Even at the best of times the road system is never any better than near capacity so that the slightest pressure to it causes chaos.
- Ross, London, UK
