Is there a way to find out causes of a delay?

InsideInsurance

Was stuck on the A331 at the weekend for almost an hour without moving a mm in the middle of what became a 3+ mile tailback.

The Highways Agency had no reports on it but TomTom Live Traffic said there was a 45 minute delay in my direction of travel and about a 5 minute delay in all the surrounding roads having started about 20 minutes before I got there. My own SatNav reported the road as being closed (about 10 minutes after getting into the queue unfortunately).

A few minutes before we moved about 6 police vehicles came down the other carriage way with a police biker shouting at the people who'd gotten out their cars. The traffic started moving and I was expecting to see some damaged vehicles in the hard shoulder or a closed lane or a couple of emergency vehicles still "at the scene" but there wasnt a thing to be seen.

Guess there is no way to find out what happened to satisfy my curiosity?

forgotmyname

Get WAZE on your phone. You can message others in the queue and see if anyone is ahead of you.

DoaM

If you enabled TP (traffic flash) on your radio then you may have gotten local news updates about it.

Alternatively, if you had mobile data you could have checked http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic-information/

After the fact? No idea.

InsideInsurance

DoaM wrote: »

If you enabled TP (traffic flash) on your radio then you may have gotten local news updates about it.

Alternatively, if you had mobile data you could have checked http://www.highways.gov.uk/traffic-information/

After the fact? No idea.

I did check the Highways website but it had nothing on it about it.

Where we live we have very patchy radio for both FM and DAB and so (a) dont normally have TP/TI enabled and (b) always listen to MP3 instead and dont know with this car if the TP cuts in to it when you're listening/ watching something other than radio.

Given we did eventually get out the queue I was hoping that it may be a way to look it up retrospectively.

fannyadams

did you try the local (to that6 area) fire brigade wesbite - our local one has a list of incidents they have attended in date order, it's usually updated about 12 hours after the event.
here's one for bucks (my local)
http://bucksfire.gov.uk/latest-incidents

DoaM

InsideInsurance wrote: »

always listen to MP3 instead and dont know with this car if the TP cuts in to it when you're listening/ watching something other than radio.

Ditto here, but TP does interrupt MP3 playback (from my Ipod, and I think it does likewise from other sources like CD) in my car. (2012 VW Golf GT).

InsideInsurance

fannyadams wrote: »

did you try the local (to that6 area) fire brigade wesbite - our local one has a list of incidents they have attended in date order, it's usually updated about 12 hours after the event.
here's one for bucks (my local)
http://bucksfire.gov.uk/latest-incidents

Didnt know that.

I am guessing it'll be Hampshire that cover it. Checking on the similar site for them they done have any "Incidents of Interest" over the weekend but as there are a couple for each day before that I am guessing they havent updated it yet so will check again later.

Did only see police vehicles heading south though and no fire brigade, ambulances or vehicle recovery trucks. Ambulances I'd understand they may have left earlier

Johno100

Twitter is also useful to find out what is going on, especially when the authorities don't want it reported.

OP if your incident was yesterday then it was a potential 'jumper' on the Farnborough Gate Bridge. These are the sought of things usually just described as 'an incident' in traffic reports to prevent others getting the same idea.

InsideInsurance

Johno100 wrote: »

OP if your incident was yesterday then it was a potential 'jumper' on the Farnborough Gate Bridge. These are the sought of things usually just described as 'an incident' in traffic reports to prevent others getting the same idea.

Or someone giving them a bit of a push to free up the traffic.

Guess it could have been if the Farnborough Gate Bridge is just south of the A331 and M3 interchange and happened around 10:45ish