Recovery of HGV on A64 sparks lengthy traffic jams

8:55am Saturday 8th December 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

Traffic backs up in Bishopthorpe Road after the closure of a section of the A64 near Fulford. Traffic backs up in Bishopthorpe Road after the closure of a section of the A64 near Fulford.

THOUSANDS of motorists were caught up in miles of tailbacks following the closure of a busy section of the A64 York bypass.

The A64 between Grimston Bar and the Fulford Road interchange was closed yesterday for more than three hours for work to take place to recover a crashed lorry.

The HGV had collided with a van which had broken down at the side of the road at about 12.15pm the previous day, and the lorry ended up down an embankment on the same stretch of road.

The lorry driver was freed from his cab at the time of the crash shaken but unharmed and the van driver escaped unscathed.

But it took until yesterday for the recovery operation to take place. Both lanes of the A64 eastbound were shut at 9.45am yesterday and remained closed until 1pm between the A19 Fulford interchange and the Grimston Bar Interchange.

The closure caused many miles of queuing traffic on a number of routes into York with diversions in place via the already congested A19.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: “The initial accident only closed one lane of the carriageway for a few hours on Thursday and caused minimal disruption, but unfortunately the HGV went down an incline making the recovery effort a lengthy exercise.”

He said every effort had been made to get the road re-opened as soon as possible.

Comments(18)

Mr Anderson says...
9:13am Sat 8 Dec 12

It's outragous! Literally thousands of people, businesses, services etc disrupted. I wonder what the total cost was to the average person trying to go about their business?

Why did it take so long?
Why didn't the recovery take place during Thursday night to reduce the impact of disruption to the entire city and beyond?

I want answers!

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roskoboskovic says...
9:25am Sat 8 Dec 12

why not do it during the night.the thing wasn t going anywhere.the world is now run by incompetent,idiotic morons.

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AnotherPointofView says...
10:06am Sat 8 Dec 12

Mr Anderson wrote:
It's outragous! Literally thousands of people, businesses, services etc disrupted. I wonder what the total cost was to the average person trying to go about their business? Why did it take so long? Why didn't the recovery take place during Thursday night to reduce the impact of disruption to the entire city and beyond? I want answers!
Agree absolutely. The recovery should have been carried out when the traffic was light. ie during the night.

The whole of York was virtually a gridlock yesterday until well after the A64 was reopened. You can't direct the traffic from the A64 dual carriageway through York. They should have directed it around the A1237 North side of York. That would have been bad enough but at least some parts of York would have been moving.

Someone from N Yorks Police should come here and explain why they were happy for mess up my business for a day.

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AnotherPointofView says...
10:09am Sat 8 Dec 12

Still, I guess the residents of Bishy Road area (NOT you Woody) who wanted a 20mph limit would be happy as no one was exceeding this speed!

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Woody G Mellor says...
10:32am Sat 8 Dec 12

AnotherPointofView wrote:
Still, I guess the residents of Bishy Road area (NOT you Woody) who wanted a 20mph limit would be happy as no one was exceeding this speed!
:0)

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Woody G Mellor says...
10:34am Sat 8 Dec 12

Totally agree with the above comments. I personally am out of pocket due to yesterday's farcical handling of the situation.

And I am also wanting to know why it wasn't dealt with in the middle of the night to reduce impact.

Idiots.

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bob the builder says...
11:19am Sat 8 Dec 12

I've got used to it, as the A19 will close at Fulford on almost a monthly basis with flooding in future, and after most accidents they close the A64 so it's becoming normal for Sim Balk Lane, Tadcaster Road, Moor Lane and Bishopthorpe Road to be tailed back. I go via Askham Richard to Rufforth on to the A1 and up or down depending on what shopping or business I want to do.

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CHISSY1 says...
11:41am Sat 8 Dec 12

Mr Anderson wrote:
It's outragous! Literally thousands of people, businesses, services etc disrupted. I wonder what the total cost was to the average person trying to go about their business?

Why did it take so long?
Why didn't the recovery take place during Thursday night to reduce the impact of disruption to the entire city and beyond?

I want answers!
"One is really getting ones knickers in a twist, outrageous,send a strongly worded to your local MP".

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baileyuk says...
11:43am Sat 8 Dec 12

as anyone above ever been involved in heavy recovery?? from the comments the answer is very clearly no!!

it was most likely decided to remove the HGV at night, you know when its dark?in forecasted minus freezing conditions and the possibility of snow, was a no go.

no comments on wether the vehicle was loaded or what with and this can have serious consequences on any recovery operation

but this is the problem of todays drivers,, wonder how many of the drivers stuck in traffic actually checked traffic reports before their journey,? how many were just popping to tescos, or aunty mos for a cuppa..

all drivers have a choice..

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again says...
12:18pm Sat 8 Dec 12

Now this is going raise some people's blood pressure, I know, but I would like to mention that knowing about this incident enabled me to cycle into York with no hold ups at all rather than drive and my shopping trip was a complete success.

Obviously by not contributing to traffic jams I will have done my bit to alleviate the misery of those who can't or won't cycle.

How good am I?

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ak7274 says...
12:49pm Sat 8 Dec 12

I have been in involved in heavy recovery at night and we often had to unload the trailer before righting it. Large powered overhead lighting was used, but I suspect that elfin safety is now an issue and forgive me for saying it, but I suspect the cost would have been less that half of a night recovery. Not that the cost to industry and the general public was taken into account. Not so much as miles per gallon, but gallons per hour and people working being paid by the hour. And for our tree hugging friends the cost to the environment in pollution.

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yorkborn66 says...
2:58pm Sat 8 Dec 12

Another fine example of our finest been paid to think and do their job and failed miserably. I think the public needs answers as to why this decision was made and by whom exactly. Pigs will fly!

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yorkborn66 says...
3:04pm Sat 8 Dec 12

again wrote:
Now this is going raise some people's blood pressure, I know, but I would like to mention that knowing about this incident enabled me to cycle into York with no hold ups at all rather than drive and my shopping trip was a complete success.

Obviously by not contributing to traffic jams I will have done my bit to alleviate the misery of those who can't or won't cycle.

How good am I?
What makes me laugh is that individuals rightly express their views on this site, but you have made this comment to insight comments regarding cycling verses motor vehicles. As a person who uses most forms of transport, I am confident to say my blood pressure is normal as you are acting like a prat, of which I am happy to comment on. How good are you now ?

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R'Marcus says...
5:20pm Sat 8 Dec 12

Mr Anderson wrote:
It's outragous! Literally thousands of people, businesses, services etc disrupted. I wonder what the total cost was to the average person trying to go about their business?

Why did it take so long?
Why didn't the recovery take place during Thursday night to reduce the impact of disruption to the entire city and beyond?

I want answers!
Hear, hear!

Report this post »

R'Marcus says...
5:22pm Sat 8 Dec 12

CHISSY1 wrote:
Mr Anderson wrote:
It's outragous! Literally thousands of people, businesses, services etc disrupted. I wonder what the total cost was to the average person trying to go about their business?

Why did it take so long?
Why didn't the recovery take place during Thursday night to reduce the impact of disruption to the entire city and beyond?

I want answers!
"One is really getting ones knickers in a twist, outrageous,send a strongly worded to your local MP".
Do you mean Sturdy? He does nothing, anyway.

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baileyuk says...
5:45pm Sat 8 Dec 12

today was a typical incident of impatient driver,, recovery of a car out of a ditch,, lane from garrowby to bishop wilton, not a very wide road so cones placed out to stop traffic, beacons and hazards flashing on truck, for all of the 5 minutes it took to pull the car out,, a driver of a nice range rover decided to driver over the cones and around the truck.. pity the winch cable didnt snap and take his head away from his body...

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Caecilius says...
8:59am Sun 9 Dec 12

If readers really want to pin the blame for the disruption on an individual, could I suggest that the obvious candidate appears, on the face of it, to be the lorry driver who drove into a stationary van in broad daylight? A driver makes an error, a road is blocked and, because of the volume of traffic, every road in the vicinity is soon at a standstill as motorists seeking a way round clog those up too. The same thing happened after a collision on the ring road the other evening. It's one of the consequences you accept when you elect to travel by car but, as usual, it impacts on other people too.

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ak7274 says...
9:11am Sun 9 Dec 12

Well Done for the assumption that the lory driver was at fault. Another guilty finding without the use of a court of law.
The Van may have been stationery on the inside lane and the lorry was unsighted due to being behind another vehicle and when he saw it, no one would let him out into the overtaking because "I don't want to get stuck behind him" and he had no where to go.
Not saying he should have been unsighted of course, but on the face of it and not suggesting anything, but............ isn't a good way to pass the buck for not clearing the road at night.

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