Fifty car pile-up in fog (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Fifty car pile-up in fog

A PILE-UP involving up to 50 vehicles brought chaos to a busy stretch of the A417.

But amazingly no-one was badly hurt in the incident which happened in heavy fog at 3.30pm on Friday on the northbound carriageway at Nettleton Bottom, between Cirencester and Gloucester.

A police spokesman said a lorry overturned, resulting in 15 separate collisions between following vehicles, some of which were travelling too fast for the conditions.

She added: "There were in the region of 40 to 50 vehicles involved. "Because of the fog and because a lot were travelling too fast in the conditions they ended up having some minor shunt accidents.

"No-one was seriously injured but we did have a number of ambulances attending."

The A417 was closed for three-and-a-half hours from the Air Balloon pub to the Cowley roundabout, with traffic being diverted onto the A435 and A436.

The police spokesman added: "It was a very big operation to get all those vehicles recovered and off the road."

Six ambulances and three fire engines attended the scene.

A spokesman from Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue said no-one had to be released from their vehicles, but firefighters spent about 90 minutes making the area safe after the accident.