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Accidents happen. Always have, always will. But the fatal lorry crash on the clockwise section of the M25 in Essex earlier this month should be the basis for a thorough investigation, a Parliamentary debate and quite possibly a full Public Inquiry. The police, fire brigade, ambulance service, highway authorities and other agencies have so much front-line experience in dealing with such tragedies you'd have thought that by now they'd have collectively mastered the sensitive art of properly and efficiently dealing with nasty accidents and their aftermath. But if the M25 a fortnight ago was anything to go by, they haven't a clue.

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31st March 2004

I first heard about this particular incident on my car radio at about 10am on Wednesday 17 March as I was driving from Dover to Leeds. The traffic reporter warned there was mayhem on the M25 in Essex. So, I took an alternative route and, although I had to do a few extra miles, kept away from the accident. In short, the advanced warning allowed me to plan ahead, change my journey and stay out of trouble. It's called personal traffic management, it's simple and it works. The next day I was travelling back through the night, and for the first three hours I had a long, boring stretch of M1 before me. All I had for company were a few CDs, black coffee and overhead message signs that were switched off or telling me, repeatedly to the point of annoyance, that I shouldn't phone and drive.

I was headed back to Dover and there were several routes I could have taken, but I opted for the most logical - leave the M1, join the M25, clockwise, then drive down the M2 to the port. But it was only once I was actually on the M25 that I saw the variable message sign from hell - the one that told me the motorway ahead was completely closed. Unbelievably, the shunt from the previous morning still hadn't been cleared.

The first question that needs to be asked is how a crashed vehicle or two can possibly take nearly 24 hours to clear? Then we need to look at the bigger picture and ask why myself and countless other drivers weren't warned in advance of the closure spanning not one, but two days? Why weren't the variable message signs on the M1 in the Midlands, for example, used to suggest drivers heading for the M25 should try another route? There are several electronic noticeboards this message could have appeared on, which would have kept motorists away from the unbearable queues that were allowed to develop.

When I first spoke to the Highways Agency, it didn't even know if the signs were its responsibility or not. Eventually, a spokesman explained that the police are responsible for displaying that sort of advice. If the boys in blue can't be bothered to do that or don't understand the concept of advanced warnings for drivers, there's little the HA or anyone else can do to prevent such lethargy and stupidity, it seems. But if you're a cop maybe you would like get in touch and tell me why you or your colleagues are so afraid or too lazy to publicise alternative routes on variable message signs. If I don't hear from you, I'll have no alternative but to come to the conclusion that the police are guilty as charged.