A lorry crash on the M6 near the Warwickshire and Leicestershire border closed the motorway in both directions on Sunday evening before traffic began to move again on Monday. The vehicle hit the central reservation barrier and overturned shortly before 17:00 BST, bringing a stretch between junction one near Rugby and the Catthorpe interchange to a halt.
The closure cut across one of the main motorway links through the area and left drivers facing diversions on the A14 westbound, the M1 northbound and the M6 southbound. Emergency services, including the air ambulance, attended the scene, while Highways officers helped manage traffic and police later turned vehicles around from the back of the queue to ease congestion.
By the early hours of Monday, National Highways said police were still investigating the crash and recovery work was continuing. At that point, delays of about half an hour and two miles of congestion were reported southbound, showing how long the disruption lingered after the initial impact.
The southbound carriageway was back in use about three hours before the northbound stretch reopened at about 11:30 BST, when National Highways said the section between the M1/A14 junction and junction one of the M6 was once again open. The road fully reopened on Monday, but the work was not finished there: National Highways said the damaged road surface was planned to be resurfaced overnight.
No cause for the crash was given, and it was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured. What is clear is that a single overturned lorry shut a major motorway corridor for hours, and the cleanup is still carrying over into the night work planned after the reopening.
