M4 traffic: Misery for motorists as motorway shuts for 17 hours after 40-tonne lorry overturns

Overturned: The lorry lay across the westbound stretch of the M4.
@EWinterLockwood
Francesca Gillett13 October 2016

Thousands of motorists faced delays and travel chaos on the M4 today after a 40-tonne lorry overturned.

The busy stretch of the M4 motorway is to stay shut overnight as engineers fix the badly-damaged road, prolonging drivers' travel misery for a total of 17 hours.

The recycling truck smashed into the central reservation before careering onto its side and spilling garden waste as well as hundreds of litres of diesel at just before 1pm today.

Three-hundred metres of the central barrier, a light pole and the road surface were destroyed in the crash, which happened on the westbound part of the road between Maidenhead and Reading.

Smash: The lorry driver was reportedly airlifted to hospital.
@4everDouglas13

Traffic quickly came to a standstill and the motorway was closed for several hours as engineers investigated what had happened.

Initially it was hoped the road could be repaired by midnight, but drivers’ hopes were dashed when Highways England confirmed part of the road will stay closed overnight.

Warning: Authorities warned drivers the road would be closed for hours.
Highways England.

Westbound between junction eight and 10 will stay shut until at least 6am on Thursday morning – meaning motorists will have been unable to use the road for 17 hours.

The air ambulance is believed to have taken the truck driver to hospital.

Destroyed: 300 metres of the central reservation was damaged.
Thames Valley Police roads.

Highways England said: “The HGV has spilled a large quantity of diesel onto the carriageway and shed its load of garden waste.

“The westbound carriageway will remain closed for several hours for recovery, clear-up and barrier damage repairs after the incident. Resurfacing of the carriageway damaged by the fuel spill will also be carried out.”

One lane eastbound is also closed because of damage from the central reservation.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in