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.

But investigating an accident takes time. One might suggest that police start decanting traffic off the motorway, which won't alleviate the problem, but just move it somewhere else. The constant insinuation that other European countries do this better has been challenged several times.
Wherever an accident happens there must be an investigation and an inquest. Were the posters on here involved in such an accident or had someone close to them so involved I doubt they would want the investigation scimped just so the traffic could keep flowing.
A little empathy required?

We’re a tiny country with a lot of people on the roads in many areas. France is huge in comparison. It’s great driving there as the roads are far emptier, but using the toll routes is expensive.

The idea that France does not have traffic jams is astonishing. Google "La Rentree traffic", the weekend at the end of summer where the traffic jam stretches from the South of France to Paris. As for the Peripherique, give me the M25 or North Circular anyday.

@SharpOpalNewt but realistically does it require annoyance? No

Nowhere did op suggest they cut corners on the investigation.

Wtf? On the motorway? And gone where?

They definitely do do it better in other countries.

Always have blankets food and water and charging cables in the car for this reason I also keep an overnight bag in their Incase I need a hotel unexpectedly with clothes etc in

"Require" = no

"Understandable to feel that way" = yes

@SharpOpalNewt to me it's not 🤷🏼‍♀️ yes you have a minor inconvenience but someone else is having the worst day of their life. It's not hard to take stock and realise how minor it is.

Glad she's home safely @GinForBreakfast

But the constant moan on the thread about the time it is taking imply that the police are taking too much time.

When you go out on a journey yes there is a very realistic possibility you will be delayed for long periods. Especially when you are locked in, like on a train, or on a motorway.

You need to be prepared for that and plan for it. Not moan at the authorities that it is all their fault and that the jam should be cleared quicker. Each incident is unique and can take a long time to investigate/clear.

It doesn't take much effort to kit a car out with a bag containing a few cans of drink/bottles of water and some snacks to keep you going and blankets. People seem to have no problem carrying all sorts of other crap in their cars.

Yes you might be able to. You may be feeling a complex mixture of things based on your own particular set of circumstances at the time. My point is that it's possible to maintain a whole gamut of feelings going on at the same time and that compassion does not necessarily displace annoyance, nor vice versa.

@GinForBreakfastWELL SAID! 👏🏻 Glad your DD is home safe and that she wasn’t alone! That’s a good thing.
I think this thread proves how sick many people in society have become, that they now think any mention of anybody’s hardship, instantly becomes a competition of who has/had it hardest… Tragedy trolls indeed.

You had every right to begin a discussion on our failing public services and never once requested ‘sympathy’ for your DD. Those of us with a half-decent understanding of reading comprehension, could see that your DD being stuck in traffic was only given as context to your reasoning for starting the discussion.

I despair at some people, I really do.

Actually the OP didn't clarify that her daughter wasn't alone - she said 'it was supposed to be a lift'. I read that as 'she was supposed to have a lift but it didn't happen'.

Exactly, why are some people so obtuse? You can care for the victims but still expect a common sense approach to limit consequences for the public.

What are you talking about?

How much time do you think it takes to quite literally leave a bag of things in your car? How awful is your time management that taking 10 minutes to put some stuff in a bag and then leaving it in your car for 3 years would require you to need "a lot of time in your hands"?

So many people bursting with pride at their own disorganisation and incompetence. Like it's some sort of badge of honour. 😂

Op said it was "supposed to be a lift of three hours, but twenty minutes in and she has been stuck for 6 hours"
How is it possible to misunderstand that?!

It's clear she's having a lift and the car she is in is stuck in the traffic

Just because something awful has happened to some poor people in the crash doesn't mean you have to sit in the traffic jam for 6 hours feeling absoloutly nothing but gratitude your not in the smash and sympathyfor those that are. Your allowed to feel aggravated your stuck with nowhere to go for hours and hours. By that train if thought you shouldn't feel annoyed about anything because someone somewhere is having a shit time and has it worse then you. Glad your daughter made it home OP

I think it’s the assumption that emergency services are stupid, they have no common sense and if they just bothered to do the obvious thing then people could just not be inconvenienced.

it’s not like that! No one closes a road for fun and the ly are absolutely dosing all they can to
limit the impact. Why do so many people think they know better

To divert traffic and open up an alternative route, not in investigating. If this was smoother (it happened eventually a long time after they first attended the scene) there'd be less pressure on the investigation team time wise.

I think there’s a huge difference between “I’m grumpy about being stuck, it’s a pain, but it’s necessity”, and “this is ridiculous, why aren’t things made easier for me immediately, everyone is incompetent”

I see a lot of the latter on here

Surely any parent taking a bottle-fed baby on a motorway journey, even if it's one junction up, would ensure they have a bottle of milk in the vehicle? If I'm joining a motorway, the very minimum I will ensure I have in the car is a bottle of water.

A 5 minute trip on a motorway can easily mutate....

The update that the girl was actually with her pal and the pal’s Dad in the car…bloody hell 🤣

Hardly a poor, vulnerable teenager alone at night on a motorway having to drive for hours to get home. She was probably sat watching Tik Tok on her phone in the back seat.