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Fatal motorway crash sees council net £16,000 in bus lane fines in one day

Tragic accident on M5 led to 581 motorists using ‘bus gate’ in Taunton – landing them with a penalty charge notice

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Somerset County Council has earned nearly £16,000 in a single day of bus lane fines after a fatal crash on the M5 – and the figure is set to rise.

As traffic queues reached 11 miles, some motorists sought to avoid the incident, which happened on September 13 between junctions 24 at Bridgwater and 25 at Taunton. Two people died and four others were injured in the multi-vehicle crash.

Hundreds of drivers took an alternative route – and went through a ‘bus gate’ in Taunton near the A38, even though vehicles weren’t officially diverted via the gate.

Only buses, emergency vehicles and bicycles are allowed to use that section of road. All other traffic caught on the road is automatically issued with a penalty charge notice (PCN), thanks to number-plate recognition cameras at the entrance.

A whopping 581 PCNs were issued to motorists using the bus gate that day in a bid to escape the traffic jam.

The authority stands to make more than £18,000 from the PCNs – with almost £16,000 raised already. Eighty-seven per cent of the drivers have paid their fines so far, netting the council a total of £15,960.

By law, income generated from bus gate fines or traffic enforcement must be reinvested into traffic management within the county.

The bus gate was installed just over a year ago and has come under criticism before, after it was revealed it had generated more than £400,000 in penalty charges in its first nine months of operation. It’s part of a traffic-calming scheme for a housing development, and although there’s no physical barrier, the council says it’s adequately signposted – blaming drivers for blindly following their navigation devices instead of looking at signs.

A county spokesperson told Somerset Live: “On the day of the M5 closure there was an increase in unauthorised vehicles using the bus gate, but for context there were nearly 20,000 vehicles using the A38 that day and only 581 vehicles went through the bus gate.

“We would remind drivers to beware of relying on sat-nav systems and always pay attention to signs and road markings.”

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