By Riley Walter
Emergency services and clean-up crews have managed to “hoover up the highway” after the tyres of more than 300 cars were damaged when scrap metal spilled from a truck, closing a 30-kilometre stretch of motorway north of Sydney.
About 750 kilograms of steel shards and shavings was strewn along the M1 Pacific Motorway just after 5am on Friday, after an unknown mechanical issue with the tip truck carrying the load from Newcastle to Sydney.
The spillage sparked traffic chaos, with all southbound lanes closed between Ourimbah and Mount White on the Central Coast. Southbound lanes were cleared and reopened by 3.15pm on Friday afternoon, while northbound lanes were unaffected.
Daniel Falconer, general manager of the NJ Ashton Group, the company that owns the tipper truck involved, said its insurance would cover damage to vehicles.
Falconer said a mechanical issue was believed to have caused small pieces of steel to fall from the back of the truck over several kilometres. The exact cause was unknown.
Falconer said the driver had for several months completed the run taking the steel from Newcastle to Sydney without issue.
“We 100 per cent do not know,” he told this masthead. “We’ve got to investigate further.”
Falconer apologised to affected motorists.
“Thank god that no one’s had a major accident or anything,” he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Friday morning.
Traffic and Highway Patrol commander, Acting Superintendent Thomas Barnes, said some minor collisions had occurred.
“We’re very lucky that we didn’t have a fatality or a serious injury this morning when it quite easily could have occurred,” he said.
Matt Rigney waiting for southbound traffic to clear.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Barnes, who said at least 300 vehicles had been reported as damaged, urged motorists who had driven on the M1 in the area to check their vehicles for damage.
Magnetic devices were being used to clean up the steel, which had been spread along 30 kilometres of road, as regular street sweepers could not pick up the material.
“It’s not just a case of getting a road sweeper out, or getting guys and girls with brooms,” Transport for NSW co-ordinator-general Howard Collins said.
Sydney resident Matt Rigney had waited hours for the southbound traffic to clear so he could return to the city.
“I noticed cars with flat tyres on the other side of the road because of an obvious earlier incident, and what I’m doing is just waiting it out until the ramp opens up again, and I can make my way back to Sydney,” Rigney said.
“There’s not a lot we can do. We just have to wait it out, unfortunately.”
Collins also urged motorists to check their vehicles if they had reached their destination. All four tyres on some cars had been shredded, he said.
“There is metal everywhere, and it might be in your tyres,” he said.
The clean-up focused on an area near hundreds of trucks that had been “stranded” and could not take diversions.
Footage from the motorway shows debris spilling from the back of the truck, sending sparks flying across the road. The tyres of some transport and police vehicles travelling to the incident were damaged on the way, Collins said.
Earlier, Collins said the truck driver had “a lot of explaining to do”, but Falconer said the driver had followed all normal processes, completed necessary checks and passed drug and alcohol testing before setting out on Friday morning.
“He’s been driving trucks for 20 years,” he said.
Falconer said the incident would be investigated, and the company’s managers were heading to the site, while its mechanics would help repair any damaged vehicles along the M1.
“We’re just doing as much as we possibly can to fix the problem,” he said.
Motorists are being urged to avoid the area, as emergency services work to clean up debris, and take the Pacific Highway at Ourimbah as an alternative route.
“Do not travel if you don’t have to,” Collins said.
Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said the incident was “unprecedented”, and the “challenging” clean-up could extend throughout Friday.
“It’s very challenging because the small pieces of metal are very hard to pick up,” she said. “If you imagine, it’s like trying to hoover up the highway. It’s very difficult.
“This is a very unprecedented situation, and happening in darkness as it did, it does have that added complication.”
Collins said how long the motorway would remain closed was unknown, but he assured motorists that “no one is standing [or] sitting there idly with a broom”.
“We are onto it,” he said.
Aitchison said the priority was clearing B-double trucks to ease congestion.
She said fines could be issued if the driver or the NJ Ashton Group was found to be at fault.
“I’ve been driving down here for 35 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” a caller to 2GB said.
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