London Banter - View Single Post - Why is there always an accident at Clacket Lane on M25?

JNugent[_4_] · May 4th 10, 09:22 AM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.rec.driving

d wrote:

On the radio yet again this morning - an accident at Clacket Lane services.
Is there something particularly bad about the way the exits roads to this
service station have been designed? I've driven that part of the M25 more times
than is probably good for me but I haven't noticed anything unusual that
would give rise to so many accidents but clearly something is confusing some
motorists. Does anyone have any ideas?

I've asked the same question in the past, having noticed the same thing. I
remember one spectacuklar even in late 2004 when the M25 was closed both ways
between Sevenoaks and Godstone (A21 - A22) because two (UK-registered) HGVs -
going in the same direction - had collided with each other one night and gone
off the side of the carriageway, needing to be recovered painstakingly over
three days.

Needless to say, the whole region was in chaos. Even the northern side of M25
was affected with diversions round the other way.

The cause is, at a minimum, reckless and inconsiderate driving by HGV drivers
(trying to get more out of the road than it can give in terms of speed and
capacity).

Some say it is because the area is the first really busy stretch of motorway
that foreign truck drivers encounter when coming along M20/M26. But not all
the worst incidents have happened when the road was busy (as noted above,
truck accidents often happen at dead of night). And not all the accidents
have involved foreign drivers.

The answer - there IS one - is to restrict HGVs to the nearside lane only,
24/7/365.