A1(M) crash update
A PEDESTRIAN was killed and the A1(M) was closed just hours before the start of the New Year's Eve celebrations tonight.
Both carriages were closed after the accident on the road in County Durham as police stopped traffic from around 4.30pm.
Traffic backed-up from junction 60 at Bishop Auckland, where the road joins the A689, and at junction 61, Durham South,where it joins the A177.
Reports suggested the victim had been trying to cross the A1M at the time, with North East Ambulance Service stating that the accident involved a male who had been "hit by a car".
A spokesman for Durham Constabulary confirmed the victim had died, but said he was not in a position to give any more details regarding their age or the circumstances that led to their death.
Traffic flow, he said, had been relatively light at the time of the accident, but said the decision to close the road to allow for recovery and investigation work had led to traffic building up.
"At the time there was quite a bit of congestion because we had obviously closed two junctions," he said. "There was an element of traffic caught between the two while we closed them.
"But, in conjunction with the Highways Agency, we managed to get the vehicles off the road and divert them back onto the minor roads.
"That took a bit of doing, but other than that there have been no particular traffic issues. The traffic was quite light as it happens."
The road has now re-opened.
