Six-month ban for driver who ignored M42 road closure
An inconsiderate driver who tried to dodge an emergency motorway road closure by swerving around cones has been banned from the roads.
The M42 was shut following a fatal crash but impatient Carl Bloom, from Kidderminster, decided he would try to avoid it.
The 45-year-old has now been banned from driving and been made to pay more than £1,500.
Van driver Bloom was heading southbound on the motorway, between junctions 1 and 2 near Bromsgrove, when he tried to get around a rolling road closure by pulling onto the hard shoulder.
The closure was in place so emergency teams could deal with a serious lorry crash on the nearby M5.
Magistrates in Kidderminster heard that Highways England traffic officer Adam Strang had put the rolling road block in place using his traffic officer vehicle at around noon on January 20 last year.
He used the vehicle, which had its lights flashing and a message board displaying ‘do not pass’, to bring traffic to a halt and then placed five cones across the carriageway and hard shoulder to stop vehicles getting through.
The traffic had been stationary for more than a minute when Bloom drove onto the hard shoulder and around the cones, heading down the carriageway towards the exit.
Bloom, of Peel Street, had denied driving on a motorway hard shoulder and failing to stop when requested by Highways England Traffic Officers but was convicted in his absence following a trial.
He was disqualified from driving for six months, fined £880 and ordered to pay £620 costs and a £44 victim surcharge.
He also had three penalty points added to his licence.
Richard Leonard, head of road safety at Highways England, condemned the driver's actions.
“We hope this case sends out an important message because those who ignore road closures put other people’s safety in jeopardy and this was clearly the case here for our traffic officers," he said.
“Any decision to close the motorway is not taken lightly, but when this happens, drivers must obey the closure.
"It’s there for the safety of everyone on the road - people in difficulty, recovery and emergency services helping them, and all other road users besides.
“Highways England traffic officers play an important role in managing our network as well as providing vital support to road users and they are entitled to carry out their work without being exposed to this kind of dangerous behaviour.”
