10:13am Thursday 1st June 2006
TWO horses have had to be treated by vets after their box toppled over on the M4.
Lanes were shut and traffic built up fast as officers had to create an area for the animals to be treated and then loaded into another vehicle.
The accident happened shortly before 9am yesterday just east of Junction 15 (Swindon) when the horse box was travelling along the M4 westbound towed by a Land Rover car.
The occupants of the Land Rover, from the Southampton area, were uninjured. They were believed to have been taking the horses to a competition.
Officers investigating the incident believe a tyre blew out on the trailer and as the Land Rover went into the hard shoulder, the horsebox toppled over leaving one horse with a cut on its leg.
The Land Rover remained upright.
PC Gary Rosier, one of the traffic officers on the scene, said: "We closed off two lanes, and the horses were surprisingly calm.
"They were treated by the vets at the scene and then put into another horsebox."
Within an hour and a half the horses had been taken away and the scene cleared.
The M4 near Swindon has been rated as among the safest in the UK following a survey by the AA Motoring Trust. The M4 between Swindon and Bristol was deemed low risk.
Shortly before the M4 incident another accident caused chaos on Wootton Bassett Road in Swindon at the height of rush hour.
Few details are known but it is understood that no one was injured.
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk