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12 hour traffic gridlock on F3 to Newcastle

If you thought traffic was really bad for you yesterday, spare a thought for the poor motorists that got caught up in a record-breaking traffic jam on a Sydney freeway.


The issue started following an accident between a B-double fuel tanker and a small truck on the F3 at Mount White, north of Sydney at around midday.

The accident caused traffic jams stretching back an incredible 10 kilometres+ throughout the entire day before a contra-flow system was finally put into place 9 hours later.

The enormous delay by the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) to fix the issue highlighted the incompetence of authorities with NSW Transport Minister David Campbell saying "fur will fly" following the event.

The drive which is meant to take only two hours took as long as 12 according to some motorists. "You would think that on a highway like this where you only have one exit from Sydney to Newcastle that they would do something about it, why didn't they shut off one lane over there and have all the traffic up one lane?" one driver told Nine News.

Mr Campbell was quick to pass on the blame, saying RTA workers had informed him that clearing the accident was the quicker option than implementing the contra-flow.

"To me, the commonsense test was not met in the decision-making around when to put in place that contra-flow and there will be some fur flying this morning, it will be that I'll be in a cat fight with some public servants and (I'll) demand from them to understand why, what in my view was the common sense approach, was not taken." Mr Campbell told Fairfax Radio Network.

Sydney residents would be used to long traffic delays but 12 hours is by all means a new record!

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