Screens attempt to stop rubbernecking

More than 3,000 screens have been bought by the Highways Agency to stop drivers in England rubbernecking when passing motorway accidents.

The partitions will be put up to deter drivers who slow down to look at crashes on the opposite carriageway and therefore slow down the traffic behind.

They form part of a Department for Transport initiative to improve accident clear-up times.

The government said the screens would "keep the motorways flowing".

The DfT's CLEAR - collision, lead, evaluate, act and reopen - initiative was launched last year to help ensure motorways and roads reopen quickly following major accidents.

As part of this scheme, 105 sets of incident screens will be made available for use by the Highways Agency next year.

Each set has 30 screens which are loaded onto purpose-built trailers and can screen up to 75m if used end-to-end. The individual screens are approximately 2.1m by 2m high.

The total cost of the purchase was £2.3m, with each set costing £22,000.