Caught on camera – the moment a HGV veers across the busy M6 and tears down a stretch of the central reservation barrier leaving taxpayers with a hefty bill and causing 90-minute delays for drivers.
The HGV simply then carried on its journey leaving a trail of damage in its wake which was spotted shortly afterwards by a traffic officer on routine patrol.
As well as narrowly avoiding another vehicle as it veered across into the third lane of the motorway, the HGV took out 28 lengths of safety barrier – around 100m in length – on the stretch between junction 10 (Walsall) and 10a (M54).
To ensure the safety of road users, the barrier had to be repaired as quickly as possible which meant closing off one lane of the motorway to enable the workforce to safely carry out repairs.
This impacted on the busy morning peak traffic with traffic queuing back up to eight miles at one point, back to junction 6 (Spaghetti Junction).
David Hind, from National Highways Network Claims, said:
“Incidents like this have a massive impact on the travelling public and the delays prove costly for the many businesses that rely on goods being transported across the country.
“We don’t know whether this driver was distracted for a moment or what caused the vehicle to veer across the high-speed road but the footage shows we could easily have been looking at a very serious incident and potentially loss of life.
“Fortunately the steel safety barrier did its job and prevented the lorry going over into the opposite carriageway but it was important that we then replaced it as quickly as possible to protect other road users.
“We have liaised with the police and it appears that it was not reported, the driver left the scene and left someone else to pick up the bill for this damage. It is important that we protect the taxpayers’ purse and would like to recoup some of the thousands of pounds spent on the repairs.
“So if anyone has any information about this, or any similar incidents, please do get in touch.”
The incident happened just after 6am on Tuesday 9 May on the northbound carriageway of the M6. The road fully reopened shortly before 11am.
Anyone who has any information about the incident or may have captured it on their dash cams is asked to email info@nationalhighways.co.uk, marked for the attention of David Hind.
This footage captures the moment the yellow HGV, travelling northbound on the carriageway to the right, veers into the third lane as it comes under the gantry before mounting the central reservation barrier and driving along the steel guard until going out of view
Some of the damaged safety barrier after the incident
