Coast-bound E40 motorway partially reopened
The coast-bound carriageway of the E40 motorway in East Flanders has been partially re-opened after it had been closed since 10:15am on Saturday due to an accident in which three cars caught fire. The accident in which fortunately just one person was slightly injured resulted in huge tailbacks for those wish to enjoy the sunshine at the seaside.
Many thousands of drivers heading for the coastal resorts of West Flanders were stuck in long tailbacks after the motorway was closed at Drongen south of Ghent. Four cars were involved in the accident. Three of them caught fire, but were soon extinguished.
The fire caused damaged to the left-hand lane of the coast-bound carriageway. The damaged lane remains closed to traffic until it can be resurfaced.
After the accident the coast-bound carriageway of the motorway was closed completely from the Drongen interchange. Local diversions were in place. These made for extremely heavy traffic on other roads in the area. There were also long delays op around one and a half hours on the E40 for drivers heading west. By 3pm things had started to return to normal on motorway.