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A329M crash causes major delays

By Hugh Fort
March 18, 2010

An accident caused major delays on the A329M this morning.

A 4x4 with a trailer flipped over near the Coppid Beech Roundabout in Wokingham at around 8.04am this morning.

Fire crews were on the scene but no-one was trapped.

The 4x4 was a trailer with another 4x4 on it, both vehicles were damaged but no-one was hurt.

Both lanes of the carriageway heading towards Reading were blocked by the accident leading to gridlock on surrounding roads.

One driver travelling from Jennett’s Park in Bracknell to Reading said: “The traffic was horrendous.

“I left home just after 8.10am but it took me more than 50 minutes to get to the Coppid Beach Roundabout, which can’t be more than a quarter of a mile from my doorstep.

“With motorists making their way to the M4 from Bracknell the road basically became a car park, cars were queuing back along Peacock Lane and into Wokingham.

“Having managed to crawl to the roundabout I decided it would be wise to make my way through Binfield and Twyford to get to work.”

Drivers were being advised to find an alternative route.

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Steve, I agree, it's gone to far. But the police didn't make it go too far, they're just reacting to it. The government and courtrooms need to step up and make it so that work can be done in a safe enough environment, without going over the top and reducing efficiency.

I'd hate to think how Health & Safety officials would react if they knew I was standing on chairs at work to reach the top of our filing cabinets...

CMA
22/03/2010 at 12:39

CMA, yes but that's just tough. This is what I mean about taking things too far. There has to be a line, but we've gone over it.

9,999 times out of 10,000 an 'accident' will be just as it appears. Only on that one occasion will there be more to it. Thoroughly investigating the other 9,999 accidents because there just may be something more involved is stepping over that line.

Congestion currently costs us £8 billion a year. Closing off a road for really no good reason is just stupid.

Steve Berry
19/03/2010 at 12:53

Thanks Fred, but you're wrong. There's a line between relatively safe and relatively unsafe. We have crossed that line. Ask a maintenance worker - because they're not allowed to get on a stepladder anymore to change a lightbulb. It has to be a scaffolding platform, and there has to be two persons operating it. Ask a BT engineer who's not allowed to work in a telephone exchange on his own. Kids can't take part in an activity without a full safety assessment being done by someone professionally qualified to do so, and there has to be a first-aider standing by. If a unexploded wartime bomb is discovered, people for miles around are evacuated- needlessly.

If there's a real and serious risk of the lampost falling then yes, close that road off and get it down. But you know full well that if someone is even the slightest concerned that if a hurricane suddenly blows up, the post may come down then the road would indeed be closed off. Well that's bullshine. I'll take the risk - because life is a series of risks, and I'll decide not to touch the bare wires as I walk past because I have a vague idea that I might get electrocuted. We've gone wayyy too far with this silliness. I saw a TV report recently about some kids doing a little dig on a beach to look for fossils. All of the kids had to have high-vis jackets and hard hats!!! Absurd nonsense. John Craven recently interviewed some bloke on TV and both were in high-vis jackets and hard hats - standing on the ground with nothing around them! The first thing I'll do as President will be to restrict high-vis jackets and hard hats to people who actually need them!

Steve Berry
19/03/2010 at 12:46

The other reason for all of this could be the bureaucracy behind it.

Imagine if police treated the accident as though there was nothing suspicious, simply cleared the road etc, then later it turned out something had been wrong. There would be complaints, and people would get sued.

Due to this, they may have to treat every accident as a crime scene and do all the paperwork to back it up to avoid cases being brought up against themselves in which they didn't do the necessary checks at the scene of the accident.

I don't think the suing culture is quite as rife in other European countries...

CMA
19/03/2010 at 12:31

Steve Berry - you raise some good points but in the spirit of the devil's avacado, I feel the need to point out that a lamp post that a car has driven in to is a potentially lethal hazard if it either threatens to fall down or has bare live wires!

Fred Bloggs
19/03/2010 at 11:40

Sus, you're wasting your time suggesting that! I too suggested that and got abuse from others on here. I find it bizarre that the police close roads off to 'gather evidence' when it's really a simple bash witnessed by others. But the police treat every accident as a crime scene - yes, really. So they close the road off, photograph the scene, video the scene, and even draw up a computer composite with aerial views as well. A fingertip search is done if anyone is injured (this was on TV a little while back). Of course, police forces abroad don't do anything like this - they just clear the road. Three years ago there was a minor shunt on the IDR with NO ONE involved going to hospital even. But the police closed the IDR! It was chaos. A year prior to that they closed Langley Hill off after a head-on shunt from 7.15 pm until 12.10 am the next day, but get this, even though the drivers went to hospital neither were injured.

It's a power thing, and gives them something to work on for the next few hours. If there was a hint that something about the accident wasn't at first 'right' or witnesses suggested something funny, then I might understand it, but when a car hits a lampost, there's no one else involved, and the driver gets out and doesn't need to go to hospital, why do the police feel the need to close the road off? You don't even need to do it to recover the vehicle.

It's like the fire service. Do people realise that they treat EVERY call as a blue lighter? Yes, even a cat up a tree gets a siren and blue lights. I told the fireman who informed me of that, that one day they would kill someone on their way to a stuck cat. It's ridiculous - and so Britain.

Steve Berry
18/03/2010 at 18:53

It took me an hour to get 1/4 mile through this, mainly because of the rubber-neckers! It's as if people have never seen an accident before!!! Pathetic - just drive on!

Brad From-Birch Hill, Bracknell
18/03/2010 at 16:53

I wish local emergency services were better equipped to quickly move vehicles when accidents are not life-threatening. I am sure we all understand the need for delays if people have died or are trapped - but when it's just the vehicles blocking the road?

Sus, Sandhurst
18/03/2010 at 16:32

I was caught in this. But when I got through it, I could only see one 4x4 flipped over with a trailer. Then about 250 yards further on a Vauxhall Corsa with the side all smashed in.