Traffic is starting to move on the M1 motorway on the NSW central coast, after a truck lost its load and metal debris was scattered across the road. Hundreds of vehicles were damaged due to the incident that caused a traffic jam spreading over 40km.
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00:00traffic is ebbing and flowing here on the m1 motorway on the new south wales central coast
00:07things moving all right here and there but at about 5 a.m this morning everything came to an
00:12abrupt halt when a truck carrying a load of scrap metal lost part of that load with debris strewn
00:19all over the freeway and puncturing the tires of vehicles now we've heard from the new south wales
00:25roads minister jenny ashison an estimate of about 380 cars were damaged by that scrap metal earlier
00:34this morning the nrma telling us that around 200 calls for help were made and they've had to put
00:40on extra patrols to assist in this area now the cleanup is well and truly underway the company
00:47actually part responsible for this incident has been helping to manage that cleanup and emergency
00:55services are also on site not only directing traffic away from the area establishing road
01:01closures in some instances and now helping to get things back moving like that truckie i imagine is
01:07very excited to be on their way but emergency services saying today's operation has been
01:12extremely complex do not travel if you don't have to we are seeing hour-long tailbacks of 30 to 40
01:22kilometers in some areas uh very slow moving traffic and those roads which people are using are very
01:30narrow and it is very slow so and the other message i want to get to people is you may be lucky that you've
01:37driven through that area between 5 and 6 30 and don't think your vehicle's been affected please check
01:45the tires of your vehicle because it may be something waiting to happen as these metal shards are small
01:54but very sharp and could lead to later failure now emergency services do also say that the cleanup is
02:01expected to continue throughout the afternoon and potentially into this evening here on the central
02:07coast the priority has been making sure that the freight route can be re-established this is a really key
02:13route between sydney and newcastle tens of thousands of vehicles travel this stretch of road every day
02:18now as i mentioned the company that is responsible for this incident they have accepted responsibility
02:25and they're assisting with the cleanup and they say any damage that has been made to any vehicles will
02:30be covered and paid under their company insurance