Hardly Snot Off A Stick…
Last Friday, traffic to the west of London ground to a complete halt for the entire morning rush. Apparently up to 9 vehicles may have been racing westwards along the A4 off the Hammersmith flyover just before 2AM. What is certain is that an entirely blameless elderly couple were caught up in the accident that ensued. She was hospitalised, he lost his life at the scene.
Jeremy Clarkson tweeted to the effect that the clean up operation took too long. He has been vilified for his “selfish” remarks by all and sundry. Clarkson bashing is a popular (almost national) sport. He made his comments in his entirely predictable, crass fashion – it’s his house style of course, anything less than a full-on punch in the face these days doesn’t get him noticed.
Police spokespeople (mostly in an unofficial capacity) have pointed out that there is just one opportunity to get proper forensic crime scene investigation done and that is while the road remains closed to all traffic. Fair point. But this incident occurred in the small hours, and the rush hour starts to build around 7:30AM… That means there was over 5hrs in which some thought of how to divert traffic around the crash site could, and should, have been implemented as it was surely evident that CSI would require time (and daylight) to complete their work fully?
The A4 westbound was viable again from the junction with the A316. Because of the closure of Hammersmith bridge a few weeks ago, traffic on this section is already higher than normal with Chiswick and Putney bridges taking the traffic that would otherwise have been going via Barnes. King St. to the north quickly clogged up. Western Avenue (A40) took a lot of the load. But people coming up Fulham Palace Road had no warnings, other than the impenetrable traffic trying to go north on to the Hammersmith gyratory, that there was a huge problem ahead. Signs could and should have been before Putney bridge advising people going west to stay south of the river. Signs on Fulham Rd, Fulham Palace Rd, Lillie Rd, New Kings Rd and of course the A4 itself coming out past Earls Court could have directed people away from the congestion. There was apparently nothing.
Then around 8:15AM some muppet misunderstood instructions and traffic was let on to the A4 slip (and hence the crash site) from the Hammersmith gyratory. Police ahead quickly stopped the cars entering the crime scene and there these vehicles sat for the next 2.5hrs because an early attempt to allow people to reverse up and extricate themselves saw another minor crash as evidently frustrated drivers went into idiot mode. Rather than supervise an orderly exit all these cars were then ignored.
So yes Mr Clarkson, despite your insensitive remarks, you may well have a point. While the CSI team are doing their job, and they must have as long as it takes them to do so, there were no traffic cops etc. out there ameliorating the shambles. And that, is a real criticism of the response to Friday’s tragic accident. It affected far more of the general public than it need have done.
TheStickler hesitates for about one second before pointing out that because of the earlier closure of Hammersmith bridge the area is festooned with temporary portable road signs that could have so easily been updated/relocated to warn motorists from further afield that the A4 westbound was not an option, and much of the utter chaos, and perhaps much of the anger, could (and should) have been avoided. Over 5hrs in which a cogent plan could have been deployed was totally wasted.
Sadly this is all too typical of how we seem to respond to accidents and incidents these days. We seem to have lost that deft touch which once accompanied the “stiff upper lip”. Quietly and efficiently dealing with whatever curved balls are thrown at us. These days the only place you’ll find “Keep Calm and Carry On” is emblazoned on tourist-ware T-shirts and mugs. Mostly of the drinking variety.
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