Fuel spill cause M6 traffic misery

Thousands of drivers were caught in miles of tailbacks after a lorry spilled more than 100 litres of diesel on the M6 during rush hour, causing 90-minute delays.

Two lanes were closed northbound side after the lorry's fuel tank ruptured between Junction 10 at Walsall and 10A at Essington.

There were queues of more than 10 miles, as far back as junction five in Birmingham, as motorists were caught in the traffic.

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Drivers faced delays of around an hour and a half as the Highways Agency sent a gritter to help clear and re-open route last night.

Crew commander Ian Hill, from Walsall fire station, said: "The southbound carriageway was also congested as traffic slowed down to see the incident.

"The lorry driver had driven over some debris in the road, which we thing was a metal rod, which punctured his fuel tank just after he had filled up with 500 litres of fuel."

Highways Agency spokeswoman, Jo Carroll, said: "The Highways Agency worked hard to reopen the carriageway as soon as it was safe to do so.

"A significant amount of diesel had spilt on the carriageway that had to be cleared and the HGV involved removed, making it a complex recovery operation.

"The agency advised people to avoid the area and updated motorists of delays using the electronic message boards and giving regular updates to the media and via our real time journey planning tools."

The hard shoulder, which is opened up as a fourth lane during the peak rush-hour periods, and the inside lane were shut during the clean-up operation.

Firefighters from Walsall and Willenhall fire stations helped to drain 400 litres of diesel from the rest of the vehicle, taking hours for the route to return to normal.

The Highways Agency was called at just before 3pm.

The motorway is one of the busiest stretches across Europe and is used by around 160,000 drivers each day.