FORTUNATELY crashes like the one we saw yesterday on the A34 are rare. But what it did expose again was the fragility of our road network across the county.

The southbound carriageway was closed for about 12 hours and the result was chaos.

Motorists sat in miles of tailbacks and it had a knock-on effect for the rest of the day.

Obviously you can never account for the circumstances leading to a collision such as the one we saw yesterday.

The police are an easy target for motorists asking why the road is still closed. But officers have to work in the environment they find and so it does again raise the issue of improvements to the main artery through Oxfordshire.

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Used by millions of drivers it is key to the county’s economy but yet again people are left asking what can be done to help ease congestion.

One of the many solutions thrown up recently was to widen the A34 through places like Botley but of course there are obstacles, not least the fact that there many houses that would have to be demolished.

It sounds like those involved in yesterday’s accident had a lucky escape in what was a serious, and potentially very dangerous, crash.

But let’s hope it highlights the need for the authorities to come up with thorough, and realistic, solutions to lessen the chances of the dramatic scenes we saw yesterday.


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