Met says sorry for A4 closure

SCOTLAND Yard was forced to apologise today for the chaos caused when police closed one of London's busiest roads for more than nine hours following a minor crash.

Traffic in west London was brought to a standstill until lunchtime yesterday as workers cleared wreckage from the A4 after an early morning accident near the Hammersmith flyover.

Jams stretched more than eight miles and many motorists abandoned their cars and walked.

Transport for London, which is responsible for the road, said it had been shut on the orders of police because they had declared it a "crime scene".

A silver BMW hit a lamp post at 3.10am but the road was not reopened until 1pm. The 22-year-old driver and his passenger were taken to hospital but their injuries were said not to be serious.
Commuters were left fuming at the delay. One said: "I had to abandon my car and walk to a Tube station. We were just going nowhere."

Today a Met spokesman said: "We apologise for inconvenience caused to users of the A4. We make every effort to open roads quickly when a collision occurs and do everything we can to warn the public using signs, informing the media and setting up diversion routes. However, we must also balance the needs of our collision investigators to gather as much information as they can about how a collision occurred."

The spokesman said "information from the hospital about the condition of one of the victims led police to believe the collision was more serious than they initially thought".

He added that the Met's collision investigation team was called at about 6.30am but took time to examine the site as it was spread over a large area and contaminated by fluid.