Elefsina: vehicle veers off the road on the Athens–Corinth

A passenger vehicle veered off its course and struck the embankment of the Athens–Corinth National Road, in the carriageway towards Corinth, shortly after the entrance to Elefsina. According to initial information from the local news outlet thriassio.gr, the incident occurred shortly after 18:00 on Wednesday 19 August, when the driver lost control of the vehicle for a reason so far unknown. Again according to the same source, there was no serious injury and the damage was confined to the front of the car. There has been no announcement from the Traffic Police or the Fire Service about the incident, nor any official confirmation of the circumstances.

The immobilised vehicle occupied part of the right-hand traffic lane, with the result that delays built up in the carriageway towards Corinth. On high-speed motorways, an immobilised vehicle acts as an obstacle that forces passing drivers into abrupt lane changes, and it is this secondary movement — more than the impact itself — that produces the queue. It has not become known how long it took to remove the vehicle, nor whether a tow truck or a crew from the motorway concessionaire was mobilised. The recommended course of action in such cases is to place a warning triangle at a sufficient distance immediately and to move the occupants behind the crash barriers, so that they are not exposed to passing traffic while roadside assistance is awaited.

The Athens–Corinth axis at the level of Elefsina concentrates three different flows at the same time: through traffic towards the Peloponnese, heavy lorry traffic to and from the industrial and warehousing facilities of the area, and the local traffic of residents of Western Attica who use the same road for short journeys. In August the first category rises sharply because of holidays and returning day-trippers, without the other two falling correspondingly. The result is that even an incident with no injuries registers immediately in the flow, particularly during the afternoon peak.

This particular stretch, from Magoula and Elefsina to the Megara tolls, has repeatedly been in the news recently over incidents of dangerous driving and Traffic Police checks. In this case no involvement of another vehicle has been reported and the cause of the vehicle leaving the road remains unknown; it will emerge, should a relevant file be opened, from the record kept by the competent Traffic Police service. Given that the incident rests on a single source and on initial information, details such as the exact number of occupants or the time traffic was restored may be revised. For residents of Elefsina and the surrounding municipalities, the practical consequence of such an event is delay on afternoon journeys and the pushing of part of the traffic onto the side road network, which runs through residential areas. TodayGrid will return to the story should there be official information.