A huge lorry overturned on the TF1 at Las Chafiras earlier this evening causing chaos on the motorway.

Janet© · 21-11-08, 01:21

Around 6pm there was an horrendous accident on the TF1 at Las Chafiras. A lorry of enormous dimensions overturned blocking both lanes of the northbound carriageway. Amazingly, no-one was injured, but there were appalling tailbacks for several kilometres.

Presumably it's all cleared away now ... would be good if anyone could post of their experiences of this.

Canarias24Horas

cazten · 21-11-08, 01:57

Kris was our on the TF1 about 8pm he heard about the tailbacks, but it wasn't too bad by then. Think the lorry jackknifed!

Funny thing was, we were only saying a few hours earlier that because it was raining there would be accidents, because many here don't change the way they drive.

Personally, I don't think the driving instructors here can be up to much. I'm always seeing learner drivers in silly situations

Today for example, we were behind some quite fast moving traffic, there was a learner in front of us, but the gap between them and the car in front was less than 1 second, let alone the recommended 2 seconds! What was the instructor thinking? Don't they have the 2 second rule here?

I can understand older Canarian drivers not understanding the roundabouts, but learners with an instructor?

Karen · 21-11-08, 09:28

I actually saw the lorry. It did not turn over. It had jack knifed and did block both lanes of the mtorway, but cars were managing to pass by on the hard shoulder, albeit very, very slowly. It looked like the lorry man was trying its best to direct the traffic as the police had not arrived at this stage. It was amazing that no one was injured or that another vehicle was not involved in the incident.

goldenmaniac · 21-11-08, 11:33

Our friend's son missed his flight - but got away ok this morning - surprisingly they DIDNT charge him for another flight. Apparently it was chaos at Reina Sofia with so many late or missed check ins.

les22 · 21-11-08, 11:46

I was literally about 300 yards away from it. Stuck on the motorway for 1 1/2 hours. Not much fun

What mystifies me the most when these accidents happen is that the emergency services always try to get to the scene of the accident travelling down the middle of the motorway. It's like the parting of the Red Sea as all the cars try to move over to allow them through. Isn't that what the hard shoulder is for?

Briz · 21-11-08, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by les22

I was literally about 300 yards away from it. Stuck on the motorway for 1 1/2 hours. Not much fun

What mystifies me the most when these accidents happen is that the emergency services always try to get to the scene of the accident travelling down the middle of the motorway. It's like the parting of the Red Sea as all the cars try to move over to allow them through. Isn't that what the hard shoulder is for?

Hard shoulders aren't continuous and may be blocked by a broken down vehicle the travelling down the middle works very well and is used in Poland and Germany as well.