The Met need their backside kicked for this one!

At 0430hrs this morning, there was a fatal RTC on the A316 southbound near junction 1 of the M3. The RTC involved an Audi TT which was being chased by police, and a truck which was apparently parked in a layby on the side of the A316. The image below shows this layby:



So, this for this mornings rush hour, the road was closed (quite understandable), and for a time it was actually closed in both directions to prevent any rubber-necking etc (again quite understandable) until such times as suitable screens were erected at which point two of the three lanes northbound were re-opened.

However, what I (and doubtless many others) cannot understand is the way that the road closures have been put in. This map shows where the incident is (red circle), the most logical and shortest diversion route for traffic (blue line) and the black lines and crosses represent the actual closures that have been put in.



These closures forced traffic wanting the M3, Ashford or Sunbury all the way through Hampton and past Kempton to get back to Sunbury Cross. The map below shows that route marked with a green line, with the simpler diversion shown in blue.



The net result of there being numerous points along the A316 closed so far back is that traffic was displaced into roads the either side of the A316 with Sunbury, Ashford, Feltham, Hanworth, Whitton, Hounslow, Hampton, Teddington and Twickenham all saturated with traffic - even Kingston was stuffed. Had the simpler diversion been used, this would have restricted the disruption to Ashford & Sunbury, instead of grinding a vast swathe of SW London to a halt.

Worse still, as I type, all of these closures remain in place some 16 hours after the event. Some newspaper images here.

Based on the limited information in the public domain, it seems fairly clear to me that the individual in the car was up to no good (at the least, failing to stop is an offence, but there is clearly more to it than that); I think it is fair to say that the pursuit speed could be described as low level flight, given that the road is pretty much a motorway. I also think it fair to assume (knowing the road also) that the car has 'lost it' after coming off the flyover and ended up smashing into the back of the parked lorry - - going by the images, it would also be a fair guess that death would have been instant.

Now, I understand the need to investigate fatal incidents properly, particularly so when the police are involved - - but 16 hours??? I have seen a number of fatal incidents over the years, many of which on this same road, but never have I seen it take 16 hours to gather sufficient evidence (which, lets face it will consist of measurements, photographs and the viewing of CCTV footage from the police car); five maybe six hours is about the most I have ever seen, and I cannot for the life of me get my head around why it has taken so long for this particular incident.

So, whoever it was in the Met that decided on these road closures today - well done, you have properly screwed the area for miles and miles around. And as for vehicle emissions and air quality that we keep getting brow beaten about - - the result of the over-zealous and prolonged closures being in place has saw massively increased air pollution, for what real reason? Covering police backsides is the only reason I can think of.

 

Road is finally re-opened.

 

None, in fact the shorter diversion is MORE suited to large vehicles than the roads they were getting pushed onto. Don't get me wrong, you are not going to have an event of this magnitude without disruption, but for it to be pushed so far out from the scene makes absolutely no sense at all. And it wasn't as though it was the 'usual' type of closure where there is a police car across a slip road and a couple of coppers turning traffic away - - oh no, these closures were fully coned (four inches apart), taped and with big road closed signs and then the coppers turning traffic away.

Worse still, if they had closed it at the shorter diversion point, then the only traffic that would have been diverted off would have been the traffic for the M3 - - the way they did it, traffic for all sorts of areas at either side of the A316 had to weave through various road closures and hellish congestion.



The blue line represents my usual journey (about 30 mins), the red the route that I took this evening (bearing in mind that I made use of my local knowledge to use as many wee back-doubles as I could) - two hours. I was glad that I decided to get on the north side of the 316 early on, as I had seen what the south side looked like earlier on, and it was much worse - nose to tail traffic and delay times into hours rather than minutes.

 

I also have a fair understanding of what plod does, thanks to my job, and I have dealt with the traffic boys and the accident investigators on numerous occasions - - hell, I even assisted them when they decided to drag a motorcycle along behind a vehicle to measure the speed required for it to slide they way it did - hence, I do understand that there needs to be closures, for hours, to gather all the relevant information. But, the two factors here remain that they really made a balls up of the closures - absolutely no need for them to be that far back, and the time taken was just stupid. If the scroat in the Audi had slammed into the back of the lorry without a police car behind him, then that road would have been open by lunchtime.

 

My nephew is a Met officer and to be frank they have to deal with such awful situations/people, particularly in London, that it hardens them up to the extent they can't empathise with the public. He never talks about what he sees, maybe it's the only way to deal with it, to shut it out completely so he can lead a normal family life. He isn't in the Traffic unit any more so I can't blame him for yesterdays debacle, but he's the first to say most of his colleagues are not the brightest sparks when it comes down to common sense. He is usually in the thick of any bad incidents and it's the first thing that crosses our minds when there is a bomb scare or worse.

It's the same in Surrey though FC, we had total chaos recently when the police closed the the A3 for several hours - it has such a massive knock on effect to all surrounding roads.

The trouble is all roads are at full capacity in the South East, so any alternative routes get clogged up when a closure occurs.

 

If it was your relatives in a crash, wouldn't you want a thorough investigation? I would.

 

Of course I would, but I still do not believe that it takes 16 hours for that to happen. I have been to some nasty, nasty accidents that I too would much rather never discuss, and I have never known a fatal accident take that long to clear. Moreover, I do not understand why the decision was made to cause such widespread disruption rather than screw up only the immediate surrounds - it was almost as though it was designed to cause the most possible disruption just to prove they were investigating something.