Overview
- A wave of separate collisions, vehicle breakdowns and recovery operations on 21–23 June caused widespread congestion on major routes including the M4, M3, M40, M60, M6 and M62.
- High‑impact scenes included a multi‑vehicle crash on the M4 eastbound near Brentford that produced up to 90 minutes of delays and six miles of queueing, a northbound M3 blockage at J3 that held traffic for nearly an hour, and full or partial closures on the M40 and M4 in Wales.
- Emergency services, National Highways traffic officers and recovery crews managed staged clearances that reopened several carriageways the same day, but new incidents and ongoing recovery work kept delays persistent across the network.
- Planned overnight maintenance on routes such as the M3, M6 and the M62 Scammonden Bridge works reduced spare capacity and increased the risk that even short closures would cause long tailbacks onto local A‑roads.
- Drivers and freight operators are advised to check live National Highways or Traffic Wales updates, allow extra journey time, follow official diversion routes and take care when passing recovery scenes because residual delays remain on sections of the M62, M6 and M4.