A1(M) Accidents and Incidents

Unplanned events on the A1(M) are listed here: collisions, stranded vehicles, debris, spillages and lanes shut at short notice. Planned works have their own roadworks page.

What is listed here

When something unplanned affects the A1(M) — a crash, a vehicle stuck in a running lane, a shed load, an animal on the carriageway — National Highways logs it, and the report appears here with its junctions and direction, whichever of the four sections it is on. Reports are revised as lanes reopen or the expected finish moves, and each card carries the time of its latest revision.

If you are caught up in one

• Watch the overhead signs: a red X above a lane closes it. The A1(M) overhead signs page lists the sign messages National Highways publishes.
• If your vehicle fails, get it off the carriageway if you can, wait behind the safety barrier where that is safe, and phone for help.
• Leave your phone alone until you have come to a safe stop.

The record behind the reports

The Department for Transport’s collision records (STATS19) list 256 reported injury collisions on the A1(M) across 2024 and 2025, over all four sections. That is the history; this page shows what is being reported now.

Where an incident reaches the most drivers

A1(M) traffic is not spread evenly. The four busiest stretches in the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025, sit in three different places — just north of the M1 merge, in Hertfordshire and on Tyneside:

• Junctions 43 to 44, just after the M1 joins — 142,783 vehicles a day.
• Junctions 44 to 45, past the A64 for York — 109,039.
• Junctions 8 to 9, Stevenage to Letchworth — 93,845.
• Junctions 64 to 65, Washington to Birtley — 92,444.

The full ranking is on how busy the A1(M) is. When an incident shuts the A1(M), the link roads to the M1 are the usual way round; for every report at once, see the latest A1(M) traffic news.

Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025.