Motorists were caught in long queues around the West Midlands after several crashes caused chaos on the roads. Seven vehicles were involved in two collisions on the motorways, bringing traffic to a standstill for several hours.
The mayhem started yesterday morning, when emergency roadworks following a three-car crash shut the M42 in Staffordshire for nine hours. The southbound carriageway of the M42 was shut from Junction 11 at Burton-on-Trent to junction 10 at Tamworth after the collision just before 6.30am yesterday.
A van caught fire after it collided with a lorry and a car. The fire caused severe damage to the roads and Highways Agency engineers had to resurface 150sqm of the carriageway.
The motorway was finally reopened at 3pm.
Meanwhile, an elderly woman crashed her car into another on the Wulfun Centre car park in Wolverhampton, causing chaos for shoppers trying to leave.
The accident happened at 3.50pm, when the woman was taken ill. Her car veered into another vehicle and collided with a wall near the exit.
She was taken to New Cross Hospital by paramedics but the wreckage left behind meant motorists had to leave the car park via the entrance, causing long delays.
The collision caused the Wulfrun Centre fire alarms to be activated and fire crews from Wolverhampton attended as a precaution.
Then, just after 4pm, four vehicles were involved in a pile-up on the M6 near Wolverhampton causing long tailbacks.
It happened by junction 10a, the northbound junction with the M54, causing traffic to back up on both motorways for several miles when two lanes were closed off. Motorists on the A449 Wolverhampton to Stafford Road and A460 Wolverhampton to Cannock Road suffered knock-on effects and were left stranded in queues until the wreckage was cleared.
A bus demolished a wall and destroyed a tree outside at a doctor’s surgery in Great Barr when it careered off the road.
By Becky Sharpe
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