Yellow Snow
8th May 2003, 18:14
The day Britain stopped
BBC2 are showing drama documentary about the UK's overloaded transport systems.
How it all went wrong on December 19th 2003.
The day started with the first of a series of 24-hour national rail strikes, following on from a fatal rail disaster at Waverley, Edinburgh. The strike pushed even more traffic on the roads.
By early afternoon the M25 was at a standstill following two accidents, and across the country minor incidents caused pockets of ever-growing gridlock from Scotland to the West Country.
By evening, hundreds of thousands of motorists were stranded in sub-zero temperatures and the police were forced to implement Operation Gridlock; a contingency plan intended solely for use in a humanitarian crisis.
The gridlock meant passengers were unable to make their flights and hundreds of essential workers, including doctors, nurses, pilots and air traffic controllers, were unable to reach their place of work.
Understaffed and overloaded one air traffic controller made a tiny mistake with devastating consequences.
At 22:28 the disaster many had predicted finally struck when a passenger jet collided with a Czech freight plane over Hounslow, killing all passengers and crew.
Programme website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_day_britain_stopped/default.stm)
Sounds not that far off from a normal day at the office.:uhoh:
BBC2 are showing drama documentary about the UK's overloaded transport systems.
How it all went wrong on December 19th 2003.
The day started with the first of a series of 24-hour national rail strikes, following on from a fatal rail disaster at Waverley, Edinburgh. The strike pushed even more traffic on the roads.
By early afternoon the M25 was at a standstill following two accidents, and across the country minor incidents caused pockets of ever-growing gridlock from Scotland to the West Country.
By evening, hundreds of thousands of motorists were stranded in sub-zero temperatures and the police were forced to implement Operation Gridlock; a contingency plan intended solely for use in a humanitarian crisis.
The gridlock meant passengers were unable to make their flights and hundreds of essential workers, including doctors, nurses, pilots and air traffic controllers, were unable to reach their place of work.
Understaffed and overloaded one air traffic controller made a tiny mistake with devastating consequences.
At 22:28 the disaster many had predicted finally struck when a passenger jet collided with a Czech freight plane over Hounslow, killing all passengers and crew.
Programme website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_day_britain_stopped/default.stm)
Sounds not that far off from a normal day at the office.:uhoh: