Lecturer: ‘I just drove through it’
Alex Magaisa was driving with his family to Gatwick for a trip to Belfast and was right next to one of the lorries when the bridge collapsed.
The 41-year-old University of Kent lecturer from Canterbury told Kent Online: “It was very frightening. Suddenly there was debris in the road. I just drove through it. Some of it may have hit the car.
“The bridge hit the high lorries first, which is what may have saved us. I feel very lucky and it is only now starting to sink in.
“We stopped and went back and there were no fatalities.
“I think it could have fallen on us, it could have hit us and that would have been it.”
Driver Natasha Najam arrived at the scene with her husband and children just after the bridge collapsed. She said: “We were about to go on holiday for the weekend.
“Things slowed right down and directly in front of us we could see a bridge half collapsed. Looking at it, it was pretty unimaginable.
“On the other side I could see half of it had landed on top of one lorry and there must have been a lot of traffic behind it as there was a crowd already gathering on the motorway.”
Witness Kelly Conners from Aylesham was heading to Leatherhead with her partner and 18-month-old child when she saw the collapse.
She said at the time: “We are about 20 cars away from the bridge. My partner said look at the bridge, it’s falling down.
“We could have been under that bridge.”
Police began turning around traffic on the London-bound carriageway just over an hour after the incident.
The carriageway was cleared of queues by 2pm.