Closure of Motorways- US vs UK

this morning i was listening to the radio 2 travel news- yet again another motorway shut down (this time it was the M1 down near luton/milton keyes area)

and I thought that in all my years driving in the US- I had never heard about a US highway being shut down completely for an accident.

is this just my imigination?  is there a health & safety reason why they shut down the motorways here in the UK?  what's the deal?

I assume the reason is because the stretch of motorway being shut needs repairing or is unsafe to drive on at that time. If there's a major crash, sometimes the police and other emergency services can't work efficiently to analyse the scene or clean it up with other cars on the motorway.

I was driving home from Bristol on Monday when junctions 15-18 of the M5 were closed due to a jack-knifed lorry and a diesel spill. The entire area of the crash had to be resurfaced (across all lanes) so there was nowhere for the cars to drive on the road!

The motorway was at a standstill at 10.30am and was then closed and not resurfaced until around 11pm. It caused major delays on the roads in Bristol and it took me an hour and a half to get home (usually a 30 minute journey)! Apparently it was the worst traffic in years - gridlocked everywhere.

I think they close the motorway when there is a fatal or near fatal accident. This also happens in California as they need to gather all of the evidence in case there is a court case.

I can recall being on a trip from CA to OR and getting caught in a road closure on the 101 where the poorly signed detour took us all around the pretty countryside for hours in stop and go traffic that we could not avoid as we didn't know the area, and when we rejoined the highway we had only come about 15 miles. So it happens there too.

95% of the time if it is closed in the day it will be due to a fatal or near fatal accident, its very unusual for the Highways Agency to decide that the motorway would need closing for repairs (unless it was a dangerous problem which needed immediate repair) in the daytime as they usually wait until night when it would cause the minimum of disruption.

And the reason for the motorway to be closed is that every road death in the UK is dealt with as a potential crime scene as opposed to 'just an accident', and preserving the scene is a fundemental part of the investigation for the gathering of evidence which could be strewn across several carraigeways. The lengthy process of photographing, documenting and retrieving
vehicles/evidence/bodies can take hours.

95% of the time if it is closed in the day it will be due to a fatal or near fatal accident, its very unusual for the Highways Agency to decide that the motorway would need closing for repairs (unless it was a dangerous problem which needed immediate repair) in the daytime as they usually wait until night when it would cause the minimum of disruption.

I used the repairs example because that's exactly what happened to the M5 on Monday - I agree that usually that wouldn't be a reason for completely closing the motorway.

There were no serious injuries, but the lorry that crashed was damaged and spilled diesel all over the road (it also knocked a lampost down across the other side of the motorway, blocking all the other lanes too).  It was deemed too dangerous for cars to drive on, so the authorities closed the road and resurfaced it (although the resurfacing didn't actually occur until late evening).

perhaps it only "seems" that they close the motorways more often in the UK, since the diversion roads are often inadequate to handle the massively increased traffic?

perhaps it only "seems" that they close the motorways more often in the UK, since the diversion roads are often inadequate to handle the massively increased traffic?

That's a good thought.  I have often wondered too why they close the motorways. I used to live in the Twin Cities and never had to sit completely still even in rush hour traffic.

That's a good thought.  I have often wondered too why they close the motorways. I used to live in the Twin Cities and never had to sit completely still even in rush hour traffic.

Maybe traffic in the Twin Cities is relatively good?  Have you ever driven around Washington DC or Los Angeles?  I used to live around the former and sitting in traffic for hours was a daily occurrence on the beltway!
We were meeting a friend in Tysons Corner, VA and she was in Falls Church, VA, all of about 3 miles.  It was close to 5:00.  She gave herself 1 hour to do the journey, it took 2 hours.  This was a pretty normal,daily thing.

I was thinking that maybe part of the problem, especially with motorway traffic in and around London is that there is such a density of population in the South East and even minor incidents can have such a knock on effect.  I occassionally did the drive from the M40/M25 to Harrow which is a maximum of 15 miles and it was 1.5 hours even on a good rush hour day.  Fortunately the vast majority of time I could take the train.

I also got stuck in traffic on the M40 heading towards Birmingham and a lorry jack-knife and spilled diesel everywhere so they had to clsoe it all day and resurface it.