Police have charged a 23-year-old man with careless driving following a five-car pile-up that closed a motorway for six and a half hours - minutes after the road had re-opened following an earlier incident.
Cops had barely left the scene on the M8 in West Lothian after responding to calls of "concern for a person" when the crash took place on the eastbound carriageway between Junctions 4 and 4a, between Whitburn and Blackburn. The road had re-opened at 2.45pm after being closed for three and a half hours due to prior events.
Officers closed the motorway in both directions again at 2.50pm after the smash took place in order to allow an air ambulance to land at the scene. The westbound carriageway re-opened at around 4.30pm - but traffic was diverted away from the eastbound lanes for hours to allow investigative work to take place.
Traffic Scotland had warned: "The Eastbound carriageway remains CLOSED between J4A and J4 due to collision investigation work. Police report that it may remain closed for several hours."
Police finally agreed to re-open the road at 9pm - almost ten hours after it was first closed, causing chaos on the roads around the Lothian towns of Whitburn and Blackburn, south-west of Edinburgh. Members of the public who were on the road at the time and may have captured the collision on dashcam are being urged to get in touch with the police.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Following the multi-vehicle crash on the M8 between junctions 4 and 4a yesterday, Saturday, 16 July, a 23-year-old man will be reported for careless driving. The road reopened at around 9.15pm.
"Enquiries are ongoing and any drivers with dashcam footage should contact officers on 101 quoting incident 2145 of 16 July."
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