Why do roads need to remain closed for so long after a crash?

[Puddingpieplum]

Reading this morning about a 3 car crash on the M4 where someone sadly died, RIP.

The motorway was closed for 13 hours, with some traffic being held overnight for 5 hours. To my mind this causes risks to people stuck in traffic without food and fluid. People who may need medication. Of course the people who then tear through country lanes looking for a route to work / their appointment etc.

Of course casualties/ bodies need to be removed, accident scene photos taken, the road cleaned and made safe etc, but 13 hours?!

Does anyone know the reasoning behind these very long closures? I'm so curious.

Sometimes they have to do road or safety barrier repairs too.

Crash investigation.

Recovery of vehicles that can be in precarious positions.

Damage to the road surface
So they can pick bits of body off the road
So they can investigate what happened
So they have recovery vehicles

?

Investigating a crash could take a long time I think, things like measuring tyre marks all need to be done before the road is reopened

If it was your loved one dead on the road, would you want them to keep it closed for as long as they needed to safely remove everything and gather all evidence required? Or would you be happy for them to quickly scrape everything up just to be the road open?

They don’t keep it closed for shits and giggles. They only keep it closed for as long as they actually need to and they work as quickly as they can.

If any vehicles caught fire, that can damage the carriageway. If they catch fire under a gantry or bridge, that can impact structural integrity.

It happened at night so they needed to spend time clearing the scene(I’m guessing that maybe equipment wasn’t necessarily immediately available), take photos(/have investigators lookI assume a specialist team), fix any damage(another specialist team) it all takes time.

I presume it’s to give an investigation team time to analyse the incident/collision, lots of aspects need to be assessed especially if there are fatalities. They need to know all the factors involved so they can assess what happened and how and who is to blame essentially. That’ll be the basic reason, then there’s waiting for services, vehicle and body removal (this can take a lot of time depending on injuries etc, clean up, ensuring the road is brought back to normal etc.

Crash investigation.

A close relative was killed in a car accident, the road was closed for almost 20 hours. Photographs of the road surface need to be taken in all lights, there may be repairs needed to the carriage way.

Yes it’s an inconvenience but I would hope most people would just be thankful that they weren’t the ones getting that knock on the door.

Id say it was mostly about accident investigations. Road conditions need to be checked. Skid marks, impact marks etc on crash barriers, how the vehicles have hit each other, where the cars started braking (or if) and many other things involving the vehicles, and things not involving them. Did someone else cause the accident by a reckless manoeuvre and scarper? Did a pedestrian throw something from an overhead bridge? Did one of the drivers suffer a medical emergency at the wheel? Was there an object on the carriageway that they tried to avoid?

I'm guessing at 13 hours closure, it would have been complex scene to decipher and recover the deceased from, all the while recording the scene not just in photographs but on video and taking a whole load of measurements etc.

It's inconvenient I'm sure for some people, but if it was your loved one who died, you'd want answers, wouldn't you? That's what they're trying to do.

If there's a fatality the crash investigation has to be meticulous. The road will be closed immediately but once its established as a fatality it can take some time for crash investigators to even get there let alone start work. Once that's done the vehicles need to be removed. The deceased might also still be there so again needs removed. Then there's the clear up of debris, barriers etc

Its a slow process but the road won't be closed for a moment more than necessary

If there has been fatalities (or a high chance of one) then they need to fully investigate and get all the info they need before reopening the road, which would essentially contaminate the 'crime scene'.

Three cars also means they’ll need two or three tow trucks, 3 cars to assess. 3 cars to remove, however many statements to take from passengers who can talk, medical examinations and removal of those that are hurt. It needs as much time as possible.

Forensic examination takes a really long time. They have to measure, photograph, mark, bag and label every drop.of evidence. It's their one shot to gather necessary information. That's before any repairs can be done

oh and if the accident happens at night, they have to wait for daylight, don't they, to actually SEE what they NEED TO SEE. It's not rocket science.

OP, ask yourself if a member of your family was killed in such an incident, would you be happy if the prosecution of a guilty party fell apart because there was insufficient evidence? . When accidents occur at night it will inevitably take longer to do all the steps necessary.

Of course casualties/ bodies need to be removed, accident scene photos taken, the road cleaned and made safe etc,

I mean .. you've answered your own question.

Thanks for the replies. I'd never considered that road surfaces can be damaged, bridges need to be tested if there's been an impact etc, it's just not within my area of knowledge, so all the replies are really helpful.

Have you any idea how specialised collision investigations are? They involve minute searches of the road , for sometimes minuscule pieces of vehicle evidence , which cannot be done in the dark. The scene is not just photographed , it’s laser scanned with all the vehicles in situ where they ended up , so that investigators can piece together why they ended up where they did. It takes so much time and care , because if there are offences , and circumstances that have caused a death, the once that scene is opened , that evidence is gone for ever and you can’t get it back. How would you feel if your family member got killed in those circumstances and we just took a couple of photos and got out the broom ?

Furthermore , collision investigators tend to be the older and most experienced traffic cops , who , as they have retired , haven’t been replaced , because the training is very very expensive ( about 100k) , so there are fewer of them , covering a greater area . There is one crew covering three Home Counties, so imagine how far they have to travel .

Finally , sometimes the road surface itself , and the road furniture is damaged , to the degree it is unsafe to be used by normal traffic. If a vehicle catches fire , the surface can melt and have to be relaid, if it takes out a barrier, a whole run may have to be replaced . It takes time , and resources that may have to get to the scene from miles away . We had a lorry catch fire on the North Circular , and it had to be shut for two days , such was the damage .

It’s not done just to piss people off , and no one shuts a road lightly .

13 hours!! thats not bad for a motorway crash. first of all, its about clearing the scene, getting rid of the onlookers, dealing with the casualties, then recovering bodies (dead or alive), recovering vehicles, making the road safe and Investigations! they go in and take photo's with vehicles in situ, bodies in situ, and then they take photos when the scene is clear, they mark up the road. its very time consuming... its the only chance they have because once that road is open again they can't go back and do it again

You really have to ask ???

5 hours without food or fluid is no time at all (unless there's a medical need). The idea that someone without a medical need cannot go without stuffing their face eating and drinking just proves how greedy people can be these days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b056g3

I've seen some of these but not all. Well worth a look if you're after a bit more of an overview. It's got to be pretty hard to do.

As others have said, it’s diagnostics. There will be a specialist unit that have to attend the crash scene. Ours come from Birmingham so factor in travel time as well.

Then crash barrier repairs, cleaning up any toxic spillages after that.

I think diagnostics is around 8 hours for where I work on average. I often feel the weight of responsibility in A&E when the police ask me if an accident is either life threatening or life changing (eg losing a limb). I know the answer will mean traffic being held for a lot longer but it can’t be helped. If the injuries are bad the scene needs thorough investigation

I agree, though It's quite a long time for someone with anxiety to just be sat there with no updates on when you'll move but it's what has to happen. Someone's family is grieving and if you're that close to the scene you're stuck then your lucky not to have been involved.