Bloody M6

[timwilky]

Well it took me 4.5 hours to get home from work because some prat with oxy acetylene in the back turned his van over and the M6 was closed for ever.

What is the chance that this guy getting billed for the true cost of the time it took everybody today to travel alternative routes.

If they did, there is no way that the insurers would permit the risk of a repeat.

Conservative estimate of true cost to the country for today shambles would be at lease £10million

[flibble]

Joys of being in a cage, presume you didn't bike it..

[missyburd]

Well it took me 4.5 hours to get home from work
how long would it have taken you normally?

[timwilky]

how long would it have taken you normally?
1.5-2 and I blame sat navs for most of the problem. Now everbody now wants to use the back roads only I used to know

[missyburd]

1.5-2
Damn annoying. I was on a journey that ended up taking 8 hours instead of the usual 5-6 on Monday because of floods :rolleyes:

[glsuk1970]

Depressing, isn't it. I'll be traveling from Milton Keynes back home to North Wales later today and I'm not looking forward to it, Friday afternoon + M6 = :smt077:smt077:smt077

I've even started using the toll road to get around Brum, even though the scallys have put the price up another 50p! £4.50 for a car now, but still better than potentially adding another hour or so to my journey.

[Pedro68]

I got caught up in that yesterday ... on my way home from work, where I normally turn into a side road that leads directly into the services ... police had parked their vehicles across the slip road though ... no traffic in either direction (apparently it was closed between J18 and 19). So even on a bike, I'd have had to take a detour ... but thankfully the A49 heading towards Warrington wasn't too bad considering. Although it did take me 2 hours rather than the customary hour + 15 mins to get home.

gls I hope ya journey is smooth n swift ;-) M6 on Friday afternoons can be a right royal pain in the a$$! You even kid yourself into thinking if you leave early you'll miss the traffic ... but that's exactly what thousands of other motorists are thinking ... and do ... and you get caught up with them.

[DanDare]

Does this mean no-one is allowed to take Oxy-acetylene in the back of their vans now?

So someone has had an accident, how do you know it wasn't serious and someone was injured or worse?

It could you or your a member of your family next time, how would feel if every one you held up just thought what you have?

[Alpinestarhero]

My freind has been taking up to 3 hours to do a 20 mile journey to uni in his car; I do 24 miles, on mostly the same route, and at worst it takes me an hour and 20 minutes

Matt

[jimmy__riddle]

Does this mean no-one is allowed to take Oxy-acetylene in the back of their vans now?

So someone has had an accident, how do you know it wasn't serious and someone was injured or worse?

It could you or your a member of your family next time, how would feel if every one you held up just thought what you have?

I agree, if you come off your bike and need air lifting away, would you want to be charged by everyone waiting/going alternative routes?

[Pedro68]

My freind has been taking up to 3 hours to do a 20 mile journey to uni in his car; I do 24 miles, on mostly the same route, and at worst it takes me an hour and 20 minutes

Matt
Matt, I think you should give your friend their car-keys back 8-[

[Stu]

?10MILLION :shock:
I hardly think that either that amount was spent or GDP suffered by that amount, just a few people had to do something (sit in a car) instead of something else (sit in front of a TV)

[timwilky]

Why should the who country loose financially because of the negligence of one person. I would guess over 100,000 people were grossly inconvenienced by yesterdays closure. many companies will have to pay their staff for an extra couple of hours etc.

My own company charges my time between £80 and £150 an hour. so assume 200,000 hours were lost because of this even if you applied national minimum rates you are looking at over 1 million, apply business costing models and you are way over my original 10 million. and I would estimate there was more likely to have been a lot more than my estimate. That would have been just motorway users, then there is everybody inconvenienced by the re routing etc.


The whole country ends up paying for closures indirectly. I would wager quite a few missed flights at manchester airport.

The closure was not because of the accident. It was because protocol demands nobody goes near a 200m exclusion zone enforced because of the oxy-acetylene until it is established to be stable as a result of potential damage..

There must be a costing model for closure. I would be interested to see just what the official cost of this was.

[DanDare]

How do you know they were negligent?

I think your point is mute, lets all go out and seek compensation for everything and everytime we are inconvienced.

Its life, it happens, some days your the pigeon, some days your the statue!

With regard to the cylinders, have you seen them explode? I wouldn't want to be anywhere near them if they go.

I'm off to sue the council as their slow dust cart meant I wasn't able to buy my lottery ticket in time and win 10 million:rolleyes:

[jimmy__riddle]

ok, so i you make a mistake on your bike, and they have to peel you off the road they should just leave you and let the traffic spread you over the tarmac, just cos we should cause an inconvenience to anyone else.

[Stu]

ok, so i you make a mistake on your bike, and they have to peel you off the road they should just leave you and let the traffic spread you over the tarmac, just cos we should cause an inconvenience to anyone else.
To be fair to Tim, I would say the irresponsible act was carrying Oxyacetylene in a van cf. an accident on a bike. I don't think anyone suggests you deserve all you get just for riding a bike.
Just I don't agree that it can be costed at business hourly rates. If there's work to be done it will get rescheduled to another time mostly it will just be people's free time that suffers for which I would rather take the rough with the smooth rather than live in a compensation culture where everyone's too frightened to do anything for fear of being sued/paying $1000's in insurance premiums.

[timwilky]

Look people, I am not saying anything of the sort regarding the accident. Injured people must be a priority and their safety and that of those treating them must be protected.

This accident happened on a slip road and caused the whole motorway to be closed for over 4 hours with knock on well after the re-opening and 30 miles of queues.

I am looking at simple economics and overall costs. and asking the question, does anyone actually work out the true costs of this sort of incident. Not just the cost of the damage, time for firefighter/police etc. But what it costs everybody as a result of this one incident..

I doubt if any form of risk assessment was taken by the driver of the van to carry the oxy acetylene set safely and securely. I know when I have done it, it is simply dump them on the floor.

Why does anyone even think I was looking for compensation. Simply stating that there was an overall cost associated with this. and if properly costed, risk management would be enforced by insurers etc.

[DanDare]

Fait play Tim, to answer your question, I don't think anyone calculates how much it costs to people or businesses by closing a road.

Whats particularly scary as I was reading your post, my alerter went off.
RTC involving a car and HGV.

I am back now but I still hear on the Radio the road is closed so the Police can do their investigative bit. I believe they can close that road for as long as they need to. It is causing havoc but what can you do.

I am sure theres some annoyed travellers and people losing money, but thats life I'm afraid, no one person is accountable.