DD has been stuck on the M5 for 6 hours

[GinForBreakfast]

I know there's been a serious incident but you can't leave people stuck on a motorway for 6 hours. That will include elderly people and tiny children. In other countries they manage to clear the roads far quicker.

No sign of anything moving and even once she does she's still 4 hours from home.

Yes, this.

The OP's DD might well learn this today.

As well as the incident I mentioned upthread, I have been stuck for a couple of hours on numerous occasions on various journeys (mostly commuting to work) due to accidents, flooding, gridlock, breakdown, etc. I have learned the hard way that you need to keep an emergency kit in your car and take things you may need with you every time. Applies to using public transport too.

I always have a spare pair of prescription glasses, a couple of nights medication, water, phone charger, a waterproof coat, high viz vest, toilet roll, a shovel and a spare wheel.

My mother always told me to make sure you always have a waterproof with you!

@TheCompactPussycat exactly.

I learnt pretty quickly that when I was commuting back from uni late at night I should probably take a small bag with a spare pair of pants in it.

When my train home from work was cancelled and all the trains after that, I learnt pretty fast that I needed to have a snack and my kindle on me in case my half hour train journey became a two hour bus ride

Motorways aren't designed to be driven the wrong way on safely.

The police and highways officers have to:

1. Set up and signpost the diversion from the junction before the accident. Think of how long it will take to get those yellow signs with black triangle on them deployed along the diversion route.
2. Close the motorway and block it with sturdy and robust blocks that will stop a lorry if the driver is asleep at the wheel, not just cones. They've got to get the blocks to the right place, frequently on short-notice hire, and then set them up.
3. Block the on-ramp with cones and staff the cones, for reasons I'm about to explain in (4).
4. Only then can they start instructing cars at the back of the gridlock to start turning around and driving the wrong way along the motorway, then off via that on-ramp that has cones on it, hence the need for staff to stop idiots from trying to drive around the cones to drive onto the closed section motorway down the same on-ramp that trapped drivers are driving up.
5. And this junction just got very very busy with an entire carriageway's worth of traffic trying to get to the diversion route plus all the trapped cars also trying to get to the diversion route. It's likely that trapped cars will have to queue to leave the on-ramp.

You do know someone could end up in this situation just travelling 15 mins, right?

Or perhaps people need to take responsibility for themselves instead of expecting government agencies to do so.

Well I don't know, that's why I asked. Maybe incontinence pads or pants, or some kind of receptacle. I just wondered if it was something you'd need to keep in your car as standard just in case if you knew you wouldn't be able to manage with an unexpected delay in your journey.

Well yes. I literally said that.

She doesn't need to come running to Mumsnet though. That's my point. She doesn't need everyone else to be concerned about her DD. That's just attention-seeking behaviour over an adult daughter who's been slightly inconvenienced.

This. Im so sorry. That must have been the very worst knock on the door every

@DontBiteTheCat and @Ihopeithinkiknow

I am thinking of you and your families with so much (un-MNetty) love.

KitsyWitsy · Today 23:13
**
A lot of very smug people on this thread.
I’d really struggle being stuck in traffic that long. I do always have water and a little pouch with medication in but I don’t have lots of water, food, anything to piss in, a sleeping bag or any other stuff people say they drive around with at all times. Especially not for what I expect to be a short journey

Not smug. Just prepared. It really doesn’t hurt 😊

That is appalling...Poor girl
Really hope she pulls through.

They need to put anti jump barriers over bridges crossing motorways as this isn't the first time this has happened on the M5.

@Ihopeithinkiknow I'm so so sorry for your loss xxx

Yes, but explore the numbers of staff and vehicles available in that area at that time. Many will be involved with the actual incident and/or their vehicles may form part of the scene, others will be away responding to 999 calls, or dealing with prisoners in custody. That's pretty much your resources done in most areas. If a person calls 999 from that queue of traffic to say that their life is dependent on meds or food etc then that can be addressed but unfortunately the resources aren't available to make a non life threatening but, I agree, hugely unomfortable, inconvenient and stressful time much easier. Write to your MP or sign petitions, but don't allocate staff that aren't available to tasks that aren't possible.

I have literally never had or needed any of that! I don't even have a spare pair of prescription glasses - they are so goddamn expensive that I only have a pair at a time.

I don't travel much on busy motorways - that's probably different.

I recommend a shewee and a fabric conditioner bottle for urine and a roll of dog poo bags for poo, but a potty or some of those cardboard guzzunders that hospitals use would also work.

I've been stuck on a train as the doors weren't opening at the stops. I'd come back really late from work as work event so last train from London to where I live an hour away on the train. I have to get on a train back up to my local stop but it then carries on back up to London it was nearly 1 am and the doors didn't open, the next stop the doors didn't open. The next stop a commuter ran up the carriages to the Driver t po tell him. I had 1 % battery and this male commuter and I were at a very quiet rural station which was literally pitch black. I was very worried and tbh upset as my phone was completely dead and I it died on me as I was telling husband so he didn't know where I was but the other commuter said that he could see a taxi with it's light off in the car park and he was kind and told me not to worry. He went over to him and persuaded him to drive us back to where we lived, it took some persuading as it was about 40 minute drive! Anyway, the other commuter paid for the whole cab despite my instance on going halves and he said to drop me first, I was just lucky that this guy was nice.

Like airlines or other situations where you find yourself detained for reasons outside your control, food and drink should be provided, and a welfare check done. Nothing to do with the trip being commercial or not - the highways agency is responsible for the roads and we all pay tax. Obviously accidents happen and must be dealt with as sensitively and thoroughly as possible - but people cannot be left in this situation for that long.

You could say that about any thread. The person didn't need to come running to Mumsnet.

I'd be concerned too if it was my adult DD. I'd be even more concerned if it was my younger adult DD because she doesn't drive 🙄

New cars do not come with spare wheels anymore! Sadly my car is so small it would not house one anyway along with the other emergency kit !

I think it's completely reasonable to have a conversation around the need for motorways to be got moving quickly, and diversions or routes out to be set up.

In that traffic that is held up there will be people who are ill, for whom sitting in a car for that long could have serious consequences. There could be parents who don't have back up childcare. People getting to their own essential jobs.

Gosh just sitting in a car for six hours not able to go to the loo would make most people ill.

I would rapidly become unsafe to drive if stuck in a car in those circumstances (due to my health condition).

Not finding ways to get traffic out just leads to an accumulation of problems

Of course the accident needs properly investigating. And of course it's devastating for the family (I lost my first boyfriend in an awful road accident, I have lived it).

But for all sorts of reasons an unexpected 6 hours in a car is a serious problem for some people.

What evidence do you have that the French clear motorways more quickly?

I think I'll just shit myself....!!🙄

You don't need a second pair of glasses in your current prescription for this.

Always keep your most recent previous glasses in the glovebox of your car. If you lose or break your glasses whilst out with your car, your "newest old pair" will be close enough to your current prescription to make your vision safe and legal to drive, even if you wouldn't want to wear them for needlepointing.

I say "legal" because I have a code "01" on my driving licence that means I'm not legally allowed to drive without glasses.