Anyone in Dublin trying to get to work today will know all about the total traffic gridlock caused by the closure of the M50 southbound this morning.
Tailbacks lasted hours with the road closed from the N4 Lucan and motorists diverted to Blanchardstown or the Red Cow due to an accident involving two articulated trucks and a car which occurred in the early hours of this morning, sadly leaving one woman in a critical condition in hospital.
Traffic was particularly bad in the north of the city where commuters weren't able to get to the south side via the M50. The Port Tunnel was forced to introduce metering due to the amount of cars coming through, while Dublin Bus also had to divert some routes across the city.
It looks like things are slowly returning to normal on the roads however with the M50 and An Garda Siochana twitter accounts stating;
All lanes have just reopened S'bound. Hopefully traffic can start getting back to normal now. It's going to take a while though!
— M50 Dublin (@M50Dublin) November 11, 2015
M50 s/bound now open however, N4/M50 on/off ramps remain closed while M50 Concessions make road safe for all road users- updates will issue
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) November 11, 2015
M50 update- Slip roads on to the M50 @ N4 junction now fully open. Thank you again for your patience
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) November 11, 2015
While Conor Faughnan of the AA told Today with Keelin Shanley on RTE Radio One that this would not be the last of the traffic chaos this winter; "It was a very serious incident as you know. When something like that happens, every protocol has to be followed.
“If for example there’s a fatality on the road they treat that in the way they treat a suspicious death, with forensic teams and so on."
“It highlights just how vulnerable we are. It really did have dramatic consequences for the traffic.Because the M50 is closed the traffic coming from the north has to divert.
"The M50 carries over 120,000 vehicles per day on average, If you put a cork in that battle you’re channelling thousands of vehicles onto unsuitable routes."
“It all highlights are vulnerability. When everything is perfect on a nice spring day everything runs perfect, but whenever anything goes wrong it’s like a house of cards and it comes tumbling down.
“We don’t have enough transport infrastructure to carry half our commuters. We’re the only city like it in Europe."
Some well made points but for the moment let's just say fair play to the Dublin Fire Brigade and all of the emergency services for their heroic work today while our thoughts are of course with the injured woman and her family.