Six people killed in M25 accident
Six people have died in an accident involving a lorry and a minibus on the M25 motorway in Surrey.
The victims are believed to have been passengers in the minibus. A seventh person is understood to have life-threatening injuries.
The crash happened at about 0215 BST on the anti-clockwise direction between junctions nine and eight, Leatherhead and Reigate, police said.
All four lanes of the motorway are expected to remain closed until midday.
Lane four on the clockwise carriageway is also closed.
The lorry driver was unhurt and is being questioned by Surrey Police.
A police spokesman told BBC Five Live: "Our primary aim is to ensure all the people affected by the event are notified.
“We’re going through that painstaking process now.”
This happened in the early hours of this morning. The transit was on the back of the breakdown truck.The 6 passengers were inside the crew cab of the recovery truck which ran up the back-side of a 45’ container in the slow lane.This all happened in the slow lane. V.nasty.
They reckon the road won’t be opened until noon.
Condolonces (sp? ) to the berieved. Just wish Sky/BBC would stop delivering the wrong facts, they’ve just said again that 6 people died when a lorry collided with a minibus.
" a recovery van drives into back of lorry " will not sell newspapers or attract airtime on the news bullitins.
we are and always will be the main target of the media in this country and always will be !!!
back on topic;
my sincere condolances to all the families involved,
Have watched the video pictures of the scene on the various news web sites.
It looks like the recovery vehicle went straight into the back of a container lorry in lane 1.
What is interesting is that the container lorry had a 45" box on the back, and from some of the pictures (as in the video on the BBC news website), it does not appear as if the rear under-run bar was extended to accomodate the 45" box. It is amazing the number of box wagons you see running like this (pure laziness!) and leaves the driver very exposed if the vehicle is involved in an accident such as this, even if the accident is no fault of their own.
The recovery van must have been going a hell of a speed. Assuming the wagon was going AT LEAST 40mph, why didn’t he swerve / brake? It was early, I wonder if he was 100% awake? The angle of the wagon deosn’t suggest the wagon pulled out in front of the van.
i work as a recovery driver and would like to make a guess that the driver had fallen asleep as we are not covered by the driving regs. we start at 7am monday and work through to 7am friday morning
my company has opted out from the wtd which they can do as we mainly work within the 60 mile radius of base, but we also have to cover the lack of aa drivers and when the night falls we can be sent anywhere, at which point we then have to put in a tacho but according to our boss the driving we have done during the day can be hidden as vosa will never be able to determine how much we have done.
a good example would be thursday when my first job came in at 10am then through the day i did 5 other jobs, tottalling approx 4hrs driving and approx 2hrs of work for loading and unloading. then at approx 10.30PM a job came in for me to do a run down to chippenham in wiltshire, 320 mile round trip which i did in approx 7hrs(limited to 60) and returned to base at 745. so i had driven for 11 hours and been on duty for 21hrs and then they wonder how these accidents happen.
o well kinda had been on duty for 24hrs as the boss doesnt pay us for sleeping and so have to be up when he arrives in the yard, and had only had approx 5hrs sleep having got back from a relay that night at 3am
looking at the pics i would also guess that the vehicle he was dring was a 7 half tonner, which with a mini bus would have been close if not over loaded, we have a couple of these which we always try to use as they are not speed restricted and will get up to 80+ mph
on the above job i had to use the 10t merc as it was a long wheel base vw van that even on that was over hanging on the back
I drove one all over Europe & its 'Go-go-go.My driving got really sloppy. I thought it would make a change from HGV but its a lot worse.
Re;Accident .The passengers had all been on a stag night. It was 02.15 ,I guess they were all asleep & breathing fumes all over the driver…
am only doing the job as have found it a night mare finding c1+e work as havent had license for the 2yrs which all the jobs with a livable wage require
guess the passengers were asleep and not messing about as the accident was at 2.15 then they probably wasnt picked up till 1230, half hour to load and strap the mini bus down, and being a nice driver he had turned the radio down,the heater up, and wouldnt open the window to help him stay awake or alert
daycrawler:
i work as a recovery driver and would like to make a guess that the driver had fallen asleep as we are not covered by the driving regs. we start at 7am monday and work through to 7am friday morning
my company has opted out from the wtd which they can do as we mainly work within the 60 mile radius of base, but we also have to cover the lack of aa drivers and when the night falls we can be sent anywhere, at which point we then have to put in a tacho but according to our boss the driving we have done during the day can be hidden as vosa will never be able to determine how much we have done.
a good example would be thursday when my first job came in at 10am then through the day i did 5 other jobs, tottalling approx 4hrs driving and approx 2hrs of work for loading and unloading. then at approx 10.30PM a job came in for me to do a run down to chippenham in wiltshire, 320 mile round trip which i did in approx 7hrs(limited to 60) and returned to base at 745. so i had driven for 11 hours and been on duty for 21hrs and then they wonder how these accidents happen.
o well kinda had been on duty for 24hrs as the boss doesnt pay us for sleeping and so have to be up when he arrives in the yard, and had only had approx 5hrs sleep having got back from a relay that night at 3am
ant one fancy a job
No thanks mate.
I got recovered by one of the big heavy recovery companies from the bottom of the Dartford Tunnel a few years ago in an enormous DAF 95 SSC capable of at least 70mph.
The things that bloke told me regarding the lengths of his shifts were scary. I know broken down vehicles have to be recovered, but some of these guys are exhausted. It’s no way to live.
I think that we need to find out more information before we start saying that tiredness was the cause of this tragic incident. But if it was not at least a contributing factor this time, I think it is only a matter of time before tiredness of a recovery driver does lead to fatalities on the road.
I’m not having a go at recovery lads - far from it. They are just like all other vocational drivers - just trying to earn a living. But a system that allows for this to happen needs looking at.
daycrawler:
guess the passengers were asleep and not messing about as the accident was at 2.15 then they probably wasnt picked up till 1230,
I think it will be a different time frame. They were returning to Brighton from Leicestershire and had contacted the breakdown service when they broke down at junction 18 on the M1. To have left the event, broken down, arranged recovery and got to between junction 9 and 8 of the M25 by 02:15 I think they must have left a lot earlier than 00:30. The distance from M1 junction 18 to the scene would give them plenty of chance to fall asleep.
Half the stag party group returned to Brighton in a different recovery truck, I bet they are thanking whoever or whatever they believe in today.
) to the berieved. Just wish Sky/BBC would stop delivering the wrong facts, they’ve just said again that 6 people died when a lorry collided with a minibus.