The director of the Catalan Traffic Service (SCT), Ramon Lamiel, has justified the closure for hours of the AP-7 and the C-25 following a heavy hailstorm to ensure road safety.
“We acted conservatively to avoid a multiple accident,” Lamiel said this Sunday in statements to RAC1.
The director of the SCT recalled that a similar hail in February 2022 on the C-32 in Maresme caused a crash involving thirty vehicles with a balance of 16 injuries, four seriously. “Now we should not regret this situation,” added Lamiel, who did acknowledge that the information could have been improved and that it will be necessary to analyze whether the cleaning of the road could have been done faster.
Lamiel assured that, with the “memory” of the multiple crash on the C-32 two years ago, “they wanted to prevent” a similar situation from occurring this Saturday. And he adds that, if it had occurred, “getting the cars out of there would have been even more complex.”
The director of the Servei Català de Trànsit apologized to the people who were trapped for hours with their vehicles, but said that hail as it occurred and with this intensity was “very unpredictable.” In fact, he explained that Trànsit had “the same information that everyone else had” and that a phenomenon like the one that occurred yesterday “is very difficult to predict.” Lamiel wondered if it is “a coincidence” that just two years ago, on the same dates, a situation very similar to C-32 occurred.
Regarding the arrival of the snow plows, Lamiel assured that they were not far away, since they came from Granollers, and that the one in charge of clearing the southbound road arrived in the area in 20 minutes. In the northbound direction, she arrived later because the traffic was more complicated and she was trapped by an accident that occurred in the queue.
Although the cleaning of the road is not the responsibility of Trànsit, Lamiel acknowledged that it will be necessary to “refine” whether in situations like the one that occurred on Saturday it would be necessary to “reinforce” and provide for “supplementary resources” to shorten the cleaning time. “We must analyze if we could clean the road faster to solve the situation,” she said, and “if instead of two snow plows we can put four, fantastic.”
Lamiel added that this analysis will have to be carried out with the owner of the road, with whom he highlighted that this Saturday “there was coordination”: “In 20 minutes the point was reached, but we can improve in the resolution of removing the stone from the road “.
Lamiel acknowledged that the information could have been improved and they could have been more “incisive” when it came to giving drivers alternative routes. We should improve the information and align ourselves more with the navigators,” the director of the SCT reflected aloud. “The radio report of the incident is very good for us because it helps balance traffic, but we must also coordinate better with the navigators – and we are already working – so that this type of incident comes out more informed,” Lamiel pointed out.
“Maybe we should have been more forceful,” he admitted, and have been “more diligent” to divert traffic towards the C-60 and C-32 for vehicles traveling northbound. On the other hand, in the south direction, he said that they were “more limited”, since the alternative route, the C-35, was already “very saturated”. In any case, he admitted that it will be necessary to think about whether it is necessary to change the traffic diversion protocols on double lanes.
Around 4:30 p.m., a strong hailstorm fell in some towns in the Vallès Oriental, which caused the AP-7 to be cut from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., southbound, and until 10:00 p.m.: 00 northbound, as sources from the Servei Català del Trànsit have explained to EFE.
Hundreds of cars were trapped, in some cases for up to five hours, in both directions of the AP-7, until a snow plow in each direction was able to remove the ice from the highway.
Drivers have complained through social networks of negligence and lack of information and assistance or of the few personnel who came to remove the hail, some have even asked for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior.
According to those affected, the only information they received was from the radio or social networks.
The Servei Català del Transit (STC) explained to EFE that the information panels announced the closure of the AP-7 from Nus de la Trinitat and also reported alternative routes. In addition, he reported via X and in radio chronicles.
The accumulation of hail also forced the C-25, the Eix Transversal, to be closed, although it was later reopened later thanks to the work of snow plows and the spreading of salt on the road.
