M6 milk tanker crash causes ‘worst traffic seen in 25 years’

On Sunday, July 2, a milk tanker travelling northbound crashed with the central reservation barrier on the M6 between junctions 31 and 32, spilling diesel and 20,000 litres of milk onto the carriageway. 

The M6 junction 32 and 31 entry slips and the link road from the M55 eastbound to M6 J32 were also closed causing chaos for several hours.

Ambulance blocked by car on hard shoulder (Image: Katie Marie)

Katie Marie, who was stuck on the M55 between junction one and two for almost nine hours, witnessed an ambulance get blocked by a car on the hard shoulder.

She said: “For all the morons that have been using the hard shoulder, you’ve now blocked the emergency services. Well done.

“I can confirm that this was the third car on that stretch of the hard shoulder that was blocking the ambulance and the cars were already indicating to get back into the traffic way before we heard sirens so they were definitely just trying to queue jump.

“It took us eight and a half hours to make that 2.5 mile journey. People were walking their dogs and just generally going for strolls where they could.”

A Burnley resident was driving back from Blackpool on Sunday evening and says he has never seen the traffic so bad in the 25 years he’s driven the route.

Jim Pilling said: “What should have been a 50 minute drive took me more than three hours.

“There was no tracking lights in place and nobody on the scene. Nobody was prepared for how bad this was.

“There will children out on the road because they couldn’t stay stuck in the cars for that long.

“People were relieving themselves in the bushes and on the hard shoulder and there were cars speeding down at 60mph on the hard shoulder.

“I was lucky because my wife and I had some water and had a couple of drinks in the car but I know some people wouldn’t have had that.

“It was chaos, I’ve never seen so many people broken down on the M6.

“Cars were stopping and starting. You wouldn’t go eight yards without stopping again.”

Louise Boothman, duty operations manager at National Highways addressed the recent major incident on the M6.

She said: “The incident involved an overturned lorry carrying 26,000 litres of milk, resulting in a spillage across both sides of the carriage way.

“This was a complex vehicle recovery and we also needed to resurface the area.”

“To ensure the safety of both road users and our work force, we needed to close lanes three and four on the southbound carriageway, along with lane four on the northbound carriageway.

“We also closed the M55 eastbound between junction 31 and the M6 junction 32 until the repairs were completed.”

“Traffic that was between both junctions was turned around as soon as possible.

“Other drivers were advised to follow the alternative diversion routes, and to plan their journeys accordingly due to the anticipated delays.”

“As always, safety remains our priority at National Highways. We are committed to maintaining and enhancing our network for the benefit of all road users.”