Wolverhampton chaos as cement mixer topples

A cement mixer overturned on a busy traffic island in Wolverhampton, causing hours of traffic chaos. Cement poured across the carriageway at the Penn Road island after the Tarmac lorry flipped on to its side.

Two lanes were blocked by the truck, causing rush hour traffic to back up for more than a mile.

A section of the island, from Penn Road to Ring Road St Mark's was closed for nearly four hours last night while a tow truck was called to stand the lorry back up.

Drivers travelling into the city on the A449 had to turn around and travel back along the route.

West Midlands Police and West Midlands Ambulance Service were called to the accident at 1.40pm yesterday but nobody was hurt. The road was re-opened at 4.29pm.

Brian Lomas, Tarmac transport manager, said: "Our driver was not seriously injured and no others drivers were involved. We will be investigating."

Eyewitness John Evans, a civil engineer from Walsall, said: "They got it up in the end but it was crazy the chaos it caused. To lift it they had to close the whole of the Penn Island. The recovery truck had to park across all three lanes so the traffic coming from Kidderminster just couldn't go anywhere.

"At one point the queue was over a mile long. Motorists were getting out of the vehicles and just standing in the road, watching. In the end police just diverted traffic back on itself."

Car salesman Chris Jones, aged 28, saw the queues from his workplace at Kia showroom on Penn Road.

He added: "It was chaotic. The queue went right past us and at least as far as the McDonald's, on the corner of Lea Road. It was like that for two hours."