Glasgow brought to a halt by sick computer
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• Truck drivers and motorists found themselves stranded in nine-mile tailbacks in Glasgow last Wednesday when the city's traffic control computer malfunctioned.
The National Driver Information and Control System (Nadics), which controls traffic flow across Scotland, failed to alter the driver-information messages displayed on gantries above the motorway routes into Glasgow.
Lane restrictions and diversions had been in place in the city because Kingston Bridge— which usually carries 155,000 vehicles a day—had been closed on Tuesday night for road resurfacing.
But when drivers tried to enter the city in the morning, the driver-information messages led them to the diversionary routes which could cater for night traffic but not for the increased volume of rush-hour traffic.
There were tailbacks on the MS Edinburgh to Glasgow to Greenock route, the M80 from Stirling to Cumbernauld and the M77 from Ayrshire to Glasgow The congestion was so bad that police could not get onto the motorways to redirect the traffic.
Marshall Poulton, transport manager at Glasgow City Council, says: "It was a nightmare. We worked as hard and as fast as we could to make the repair, but by that time the damage was done. Mercifully, this type of incident is rare."