Van breakdown St John's Rd EH12 5.30PM 31-OCT-2014

On the evening of Friday 31st October a vehicle broke down during the rush hour on the busy St John's Road, Edinburgh EH12 - not an uncommon occurrence. The van was dark-coloured, unlit and in the outside lane - see photograph - so clearly a hazard as well as an obstruction. Traffic quickly backed up over a quarter of a mile to Edinburgh Zoo and beyond.

Walking along St John's Road, my attention was first drawn to this incident by very loud shouting which turned out to be the driver of the vehicle attempting to summon help on his mobile phone. He seemed to me to be saying that he had been stuck for "30 minutes" and was quite irate. He and someone who appeared to be his mate did a sterling job directing traffic, although they were dressed in dark clothing, including when an ambulance on an emergency call came along St John's Road west-bound, past the traffic tailback, on the wrong side of the road at speed. Two cars travelling east were involved in a very minor bump as the ambulance passed at the nearby Post Office, presumably because one or other or both car drivers were not paying full attention to the road.

I sent a tweet to Edinburgh Travel News @edintravel - see below - from the foot of Clermiston Road where I noted that the CCTV camera appeared to be facing westward, that is in the wrong direction (Murphy's Law?). The camera had been turned around when I looked up shortly after sending the tweet. Help did then arrive within minutes, first someone in a private car, and then according to Twitter a Police van. The vehicle was apparently shifted to the inside lane and shortly afterwards fixed and moved off.

My concern is that this incident might have been picked up earlier on the CCTV camera than it seemingly was, and some of the resultant traffic chaos avoided, not to say the potential risks to life and limb of those involved?