THERE was traffic chaos on the M1 near Redbourn on Friday morning after an articulated lorry crashed into the central reservation just before midnight on Thursday.

The 38-ton lorry, from Southampton, was travelling southbound when it jackknifed near Junction 9, went through the central barrier and ended up on the other side of the motorway.

The emergency services were called and discovered the driver uninjured in his cab.

He later said he had braked to avoid a car coming down the sliproad onto the motorway.

The third southbound lane of the motorway was coned off as work began to repair 150 yards of barrier damaged in the crash. This took until after 8am on Friday morning, causing up to nine miles of tailbacks as rush hour traffic streamed onto the motorway.

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