Traffic chaos on the A38

Police are playing down a possible disaster scenario during the eclipse, following Monday's accident at Tideford, on the A38, which brought traffic to a standstill over a wide area.

The westbound carriageways of the Saltash tunnel were blocked from 5.40pm until shortly before 9.00pm between 7.00am and mid-afternoon on Monday and it took some drivers up to three hours longer to reach their destinations.

Traffic coming across the Tamar Bridge into Cornwall was diverted at the Carkeel roundabout on to the A390 in the direction of Callington.

Many turned off on to minor roads around Pillaton and St Mellion, only to come to a halt because other vehicles had broken down and were blocking the road. Nearer to the accident, cars turned off the A38 towards Tideford Cross and Blunts were held up by heavy traffic coming the other way.

All eastbound traffic on the A38 was re-routed from the Trerulefoot roundabout towards the Torpoint ferry on the A374 and the three ferries ran a shuttle service throughout the evening to clear the backlog.

The situation could have been even worse. There were only two ferries operating between 7.00am and mid-afternoon on Monday, as the 'Plym' ferry was out of action while engineers carried out maintenance work to the chain in the gantry.

Bridge and Ferry Manager David List said that the decision to carry out this work, which is only undertaken every five or six years, was taken late on Friday and that all radio media and the central traffic control in Bristol had been informed in advance.

The previous manager, Roger Warren, had, he said, decided that the advance warning signs previously operating at locations such as Tregantle to inform drivers of hold-ups on the ferries, should be removed, due to high maintenance and operating costs.

The road closure lasted for five hours and followed the collision, at 3.50pm, between a Volvo estate and a Vauxhall Belmont. The driver of the Vauxhall Belmont, 36-year-old Stephen Soames from Seaton, was airlifted to Derriford Hospital with spinal injuries and a broken pelvis and is still in hospital. The driver of the Volvo, Kathryn Sobey, aged 44, from Pengover, near Liskeard, has whiplash injuries and bruising cause by her seatbelt.

The Government has put plans to dual the A38 on hold, while they carry out a three-year review of road networks. The section of the A38 between Saltash and Bodmin carries up to 20,000 cars a day