M25 lorry crash causes Dartford gridlock

The driver has only suffered minor injuries, but the resulting closures have hurt travel times across the south east.  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00There was a huge accident at the M25 over the weekend on Sunday night at 10pm where

00:05a Tesco lorry burst into flames after colliding with the central barrier between Junction

00:095 and 6 near Godstone. The HGV exploded but thankfully an ambulance was driving behind

00:14and the crew stopped to assist. It's now been reported that the driver only had minor

00:18injuries after the crash.

00:20Fire crews were on the scene as well with six of them being joined by South East Ambulance

00:24Service and Surrey Police Officers. They put out the flames in the morning with only one

00:28engine remaining at 7am.

00:30The stretch of road has been reported to need resurfacing. And throughout the day the stretch

00:35has been fully closed. Anyone hoping to get from Kent to that side of the M25 or the other

00:39way around has been advised to seek a different route with the closure likely to stay until

00:44around midday.

00:45And it's even driven some road users to question the infrastructure of routes into Kent. With

00:50ex-user Russ tweeting that the Dartford Tunnel has had to close some of its lanes and with

00:55the crash on the M25, the Lower Thames Crossing might have come in handy as he says it can

01:00take up to five hours to get out of Kent.

01:03Both routes into the county have been heavily affected with the junction joining the M20

01:07to the M25 closed around Chipstead all the way to Addington and the M25A2 junction near

01:13the Dartford Crossing is experiencing severe delays all along the A2 into Kent.