At around 1.45pm on Thursday June 6, reports of a collision turned out to be an overturned car and caravan between Junction 19 in Portishead and Junction 20 in Clevedon.
National Highways South West tweeted to say there was: ‘Approximately four miles of congestion in the approach to this incident on the southbound M5 causing delays of at least 60 minutes above journey times usual.”
Traffic slowed to a standstill, with delays of up to an hour.
READ MORE: M5 traffic: People leave cars amid 90 minute delays on M5
The AA live traffic map demonstrated a clear backlog of traffic stretching from near the village of Portbury to Clevedon in North Somerset.
M5 delays
Freeway camera footage showed how much traffic was on the southbound carriageway at 2.21pm – just over half an hour after the incident was first reported.
An ambulance then arrived on the scene around 2:33 p.m., and salvage work would also have added to the construction delays. At 3:10 p.m. the car was reported to have been recovered, with the trailer also being straightened in preparation for removal from the motorway.
What the traffic was like at 2.21pm on Thursday June 16 (Image: Highways England)
Twenty minutes later we received a statement from Avon and Somerset Police which read: ‘Two people have been taken to hospital, their injuries do not appear to be life threatening or life altering. has been closed while vehicles are recovered and road cleared of debris.”
Seven miles of queuing ensued, with reported delays of up to 90 minutes around 3:30 p.m. People were even leaving their cars in the rapidly rising temperatures – up to 25 degrees in Clevedon – to escape the heat.
Traffic cameras on the M5 show traffic at a standstill
At 3:45 p.m., it was announced on the Inrix travel tracking site that all lanes had reopened, but that there were still “significant delays”. It wasn’t until around 5 p.m. that the travel time was reported to be close to normal.
You can read the full sequence of events as they unfolded on our live blog here.
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Source: www.somersetlive.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-06-16 20:08:21
