Motorists faced lengthy delays today after a crash blocked one of Telford’s busiest roads. One driver had to be cut free from his vehicle after the collision between two lorries.
The vehicles collided on the northbound carriageway of the A442 Eastern Primary, bet-ween Stirchley interchange and Randlay interchange.
Emergency services were called to the scene at about 8.40am.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service sent two crews from Telford’s Tweedale fire station, the rescue tender from Wellington and the incident commander from Shrewsbury to the incident.
The County Air Ambulance was also called to the scene, but was stood down when it became clear no-one had been injured.
A fire and rescue service spokesman said: “One male casualty was released by firefighters using cutting equipment.”
Suzie Fothergill, West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman, said: “The Heli-med was called out, but stood down. No injuries were sustained.”
Both lanes and the slip road on to the A442 were initially closed off, but one lane was quickly reopened to allow traffic through.
However, motorists faced morning misery as the build-up of traffic led to lengthy delays.
The road was also temporarily closed to allow the lorries to be moved from the road later in the morning.
Steve Wright, Telford Police spokesman, said: “A diversion was expected to be put in place to allow the recovery to take place.”
15 Comments
It is important to note that prior to the changes made to the EP A442, this stretch of road had the highest amount of accidens, yet remained unchanged.
The EP A442 has had more accidents since the changes than before, desite the Council admitting it changed its calculations in order to give a better impression to the public.
Change the way you calcultate things to give a better impression but not actually improve safety. Quite an astonishing admission made in writing.
Once again our “listening council” didn’t listen to the motorists who said it wouldn’t work and we are now paying the cost with higher casualties and the expense of the “improvements” on our council tax…will they ever listen and learn???
Wasn’t this the Award Winning design that was going to cut casualties?
Maybe they should hand their award back…then appologise to the unfortunate people still suffering on this nightmare road.
I drive a lorry for a local company doing multi drops. Several times a day i join the EP at the Wombridge Interchange heading Town Centre way. Due to the markings on the road, just after i get on the EP i have to “get in correct lane” which means i have to get into the right hand side lane. When you are in a vehicle carrying 12 - 15 tons you can imagine that the EP, being uphill, i can only achieve a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour. I estimate that 75% of drivers “undertake” me ( i can’t blame them ), and planners believe this is safer than before?. Are the planners who sit in their offices, drinking cups of tea and dreaming up these safety measures on Telfords roads really on this planet or do they really believe it will cause less accidents! I guess we should be grateful, because soon we will have run out of islands that they can put useless traffic lights on and they will put them at every junction on the EP so that they can spend our taxes that way.
I use the EP every day to get to and from work and can honestly say that I have never had a problem and have never been in any ‘near misses’, irrespective of how big or small a vehicle I am in. The EP is pretty much a straight road - there are no dangerous bends, no sudden changes in speed limits and other than the ‘get in the right lane for where you want to go’ area (which is clearly advised in advance I may add) there are no hazardous lane changes - therefore it would suggest that it is not the council’s fault for the number of accidents, it’s the drivers that cause them. Why is no one suggesting that the causes of the accidents be investigated rather than just the number of them? Is it the councils fault if it rains and the road becomes slippy? Can a driver not tell that they are over the speed limit? Or the drink drive limit? Is it the councils fault if one individual decides to drive like an idiot and cause a multiple car pile up?? I don’t think so. Maybe we should stop taking the obvious option in blaming an easy target and start looking at what we can do to improve driving standards. (And no, I don’t work for the council).
That’s the exact reason for it not needing to be changed in the first place Katie. £740,000 has done nothing to improve it.
the roads in telford are very safe actually
this is what comes of having 3 highways authorities in one county (shropshire cc, highways agency, and T&WC) they should all be scrapped and centralised into one massive all powerful roads service, that would sort it, also more roads should be pay as you go, toll roads liek, then the private company would maintain them better
telford council is rubbish with highways, yet next door shropshire county council is an excellent authority with loads of money, why cant they join up on highways, they cross boundaries and it would save money and they could learn from the others best practice
i cant believe the calls to let SCC manage our roads in telford, they do a terrible job, look at the chaos on Meole island, id rather have T&W running them any day of the week
this is an accident waiting to happen
Refering to Brian
Yess Lorries are a accidant waiting for happen
Personally I feel Lorries should be banned from the road between 8am and 6pm
Most of the shops are open 24/7 now
so deliveries can be made at night
all other lorries could also operate at night as well
This would reduce traffic and prevent lorries pulling out onto the middle lane on Motorways and holding us all up
Y Mab,
I quite agree, I’ve been saying this for some time.
Overnight, congestion and collisions would be cut, therefore saving NHS cash, not to mention the fuel wasted just sitting there in queues during ‘rush hour’.
Other governments around the world have introduced a variety of incentives like car sharing/lanes for cars with two or more people/only letting even or odd number plates use the road on certain days etc to get traffic figures down, but just imagine the difference it would make if haulage companies got a tax break for only driving at night.
Of course, then you’ve got the thorny issue of night-time noise if trucks have to deliver to stores in or across residential areas.
Definitely worth thinking about though . . .
In reply to Ymab, firstly you can’t ban all lorries in the day. A lot of our customers are members of the public that require products delivered to there home. Would it be fine with you if we pull up outside your home at 2am, unload our vehicle with our crane and then knock your door to get a signiture?
The issue i previously made was that i have never seen any designing of roads quite like the EP.
I too have never seen a road like the EP in my 35 years of driving many miles but the A442 between Kidderminster and Worcester has been “destroyed” in pretty much the same way. No wonder the EP won an award it must be for it’s quirkiness not it’s safety characteristics. Designed by Architects and judged by Clowns.