Incredible escapes as falling bridge smashes into lorry
MOTORWAY travellers had a miracle escape yesterday when a digger hit a bridge and brought it crashing down.
A biker avoided death or serious injury by hurling himself off his motorcycle as debris weighing hundreds of tons rained on to the busy M20 in Kent.
An HGV was torn to shreds by falling concrete and metal from the pedestrian footbridge, while terrified drivers had to swerve or brake hard to avoid disaster.
Holiday traffic tailbacks stretching to 15 miles built up in both directions and each three- lane carriageway was closed, leading to delays of up to six hours on Britain’s busiest day on the roads.
Shocked motorists described the horrifying moment they saw the bridge collapse in front of them as it was struck by the arm of the huge digger – being carried on the back of a lorry.
Lecturer Alex Magaisa, 41 – who was driving to Gatwick Airport with his wife and two young sons – said he was overtaking the truck just as the chaos unfolded.
“My instinct was just to drive through and I had to manoeuvre through the debris,” said Dr Magaisa, from the University of Kent.
Rammed
“It was a big shock. It’s only just starting to sink in now what might have happened. We were right in the line of fire and we could have been crushed.”
An air ambulance, several road ambulances, firefighters and police raced to the scene just after midday – between junctions 3 and 4 of the westbound carriageway near Maidstone.
The emergency crews were amazed to find that the motorcyclist was the only victim and that he had not suffered life-threatening injuries. The biker was treated for suspected broken ribs.
Officers eased the growing traffic snarl-up by removing crash barriers, allowing drivers to turn around and go back in the direction they came from.
The M20 was then shut and was expected to remain closed till at least noon today.
Driver Sonny Gladdish said he was a few cars behind the lorry carrying the digger and saw it travelling on the hard shoulder before it rammed the bridge.
He went on: “I heard a loud bang and saw a motorcyclist throw himself off his bike to avoid the impact.”
Witness Kelly Conners, of Aylesham, was in a car with her 18-month-old child at the time.
She said: “My partner yelled, ‘Look at the bridge, it’s falling down’.
“We could have been under all that debris.”
Some motorists tried to halt the traffic on the M20’s eastbound carriageway because they feared the bridge might collapse on that carriageway too.
The footbridge had been blocked off to the public for some time and was M26 M20 CHAOS: Map shows the scene undergoing repairs. Also yesterday a man leapt to his death from a bridge over the M5.
The northbound slip road at junction 10 near Cheltenham, Glos, shut for hours afterwards. Queues up to 50 miles long built up elsewhere on the motorway as families streamed towards the West Country beaches.
The volume of traffic was said to be double the level of 12 months ago.
About 13 million cars were expected on the roads during the bank holiday weekend – twice the amount in a normal weekend.
Yesterday was expected to be the busiest day with an estimated 10 million drivers behind the wheel.
National t ourism a g e ncy VisitEngland said an estimated 5.1 million people were taking a break within the UK, generating about £1.3billion for the economy.
But many drivers also added to the huge quantities of traffic by heading for airports across the country – including Gatwick, where crowds of holidaymakers were set to jet off abroad. Delays are expected at known traffic jam hotspots throughout the weekend. Motorists were advised to avoid sections of the M25, M6, M4 and M27.
A colossal 40,000 breakdowns are expected, the most common causes being flat and faulty batteries or a puncture, followed by engine breakdowns and clutch faults.
AA patrolman Max Holdstock urged drivers to carry a supply of extra water in their vehicles because of the warm weather.
He said: “August Bank Holiday weekend is always a bit of a mad scramble on the roads and routes to the South West and the coast are usually among the busiest.
“It’s a good idea to plan an alternative route in case of delays and carry plenty of water – at least a litre per person.”
A number of music festivals are taking place this weekend, which are likely to add to the traffic chaos. They are at Reading, Leeds, Creamfields in Cheshire and CarFest South in Hampshire.
A 26-year-old man from Cornwall died at the Creamfields festival on Friday night. He has not been named.
The cause of death had not been established last night. It came as police issued a warning about taking drugs.
Hotspots
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people are travelling by coach, with operator National Express announcing it was expecting its busiest weekend of the year.
The company said that every one of its full coaches takes a mile of traffic off the roads.
Rail travellers could face major problems, with nearly 1,000 engineering