Safe Speed Forums

Motorway closure forces drivers to sleep on the M20
29.11.06


Drivers caught up in the chaos criticised
the police for failing to warn them about
what was ahead.

Hundreds of drivers were forced to sleep in their cars overnight after a 20-mile stretch of motorway was closed.

Motorists were stuck for up to 12 hours after a stretch of the M20 was turned into a lorry park because of a ferry blockade.

Many drivers switched off their engines and went to sleep as three junctions on the 56-mile motorway were closed between Ashford and Sandgate, Folkestone.

Kent Police acted after French workers formed a blockade in Calais preventing ferries from leaving Dover. A police spokesman said the move - codenamed Operation Stack - could be in place all day. He added that he had "no idea" how long the industrial action would continue.

Zoe Frost, 32, a sales adviser who commutes daily from Maidstone to Dover, said: "We moved one mile in the space of three hours. Eventually people just gave up, switched off their engines and went to sleep. The road came to an abrupt standstill at junction 10 and there was no warning that it was going to happen.

"Unless you listened to the radio travel bulletins you would have had no idea that you were about to hit a monster jam. There were no warning signs anywhere."

Keith Allen was driving home from Ashford with his wife to their house in Folkestone. He said: "We were stuck for five hours moving at a snail's pace.

"Eventually we were forced off the motorway on to the A roads at junction 11 but the situation was no better there, either.

"All the smaller roads had become congested and it took us another two hours to get home. On a good day the whole trip should take less than an hour."

He added: "We have to put up with this about three or four times every year. When the French decide to strike it just brings the M20 to a standstill, with thousands of lorries queuing up trying to get across the Channel. "It becomes hell for car drivers who just want to get home."

Anne Rogers, a 49-year-old nurse from Dover, said: "Once drivers realised they were not getting home for the night they just got out their cars and started talking to each other.

"Nobody could really work out what was going wrong. The atmosphere was pretty grim.

"Lots of people had children in the cars with them who were hungry and tired. People were sharing sandwiches and water around and passing about mobile phones."

The motorway is closed from junctions 8 to 12. Overnight, police were trying to divert drivers off the road at junction 11 to clear the congestion.

A spokesman for Kent Police said: "When we realised other motorists apart from lorry drivers were caught up in it, we opened junction 11 to get them out. But it was like a funnel down there. It was going very slowly."

Drivers were now being diverted off the motorway before they reached the congestion zone, he said.

"Unless you listened to the radio travel bulletins you would have had no idea that you were about to hit a monster jam. There were no warning signs anywhere."

He added: "We have to put up with this about three or four times every year. When the French decide to strike it just brings the M20 to a standstill, with thousands of lorries queuing up trying to get across the Channel. "It becomes hell for car drivers who just want to get home."

I would have thought that anyone untertaking that kind of commute would be listening anyway...




Diddums. What about the poor truck drivers that can't do their jobs OR get home because of it?

In all fairness, yes there should be some sort of driver information system in place to help ease the pain, but what are the government doing about the root cause of the problem, the French causing the blockade?

Personally I would have thought that some land could have been found around Dover somewhere that could be used as a large Truck Stop (complete with facilities for the Drivers),

I would have thought that anyone untertaking that kind of commute would be listening anyway...

for a 40 minute drive from London to Dover?

why not? i listen to local radio no matter where i am mainly to hear the traffic updates.

the reality is quite the contrary. there are precious few places to park a truck in that area and to make matters worse, they are closing a truck stop to allow development on the land. if memory serves me correctly, that closure will deny us 250 spaces. that will be another 250 trucks trying to find somewhere to sleep EVERY night.

So have a protest? Park 250 trucks in Downing Street?