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The Day Britain Stopped is a 2003 BBC drama documentary based around a fictional transport disaster which led to cause gridlock, a plane crash and a stock-market crash. The programme is set in late 2004 or early 2005, looking back on the fictional events of December 19, 2003.
Chronology
December 18:
A train accident near Edinburgh leads to the ASLEF and RMT trade unions to declare a strike due to safety concerns, forcing the heavy Christmas rail passenger traffic to use the roads instead.
December 19:
A lorry accident on the M25 motorway causes a major tailback in both directions, spreading to the nearby M23.
Meanwhile, as British airspace runs over capacity to cope with the Christmas traffic, heavy traffic delays force the air traffic controllers to work double- and triple-shifts.
A chemical tanker lorry jack-knives on the M25, causing a pile-up and further tailbacks, leading to the closing of the M25, and heavy delays on the M1, M2, M3, M11 and M20, the major artery-roads leading to London.
Charlie Watson, whose car was hit by the lorry accident earlier in the day, dies on the way to hospital, since paramedics run out of medicines when stuck in traffic.
As traffic worsens, Jerry Newell, a pilot, is forced to walk to Heathrow Airport in order to reach his flight to Bilbao. A friendly football match between England and Turkey in Manchester is cancelled, leaving thousands stranded on the M6 and M40, effectively shutting down Manchester and Birmingham.
Police action, forcing people to remain in their cars, is found to be causing hypothermia, and so Operation Gridlock, a fictional secret plan to deal with such a situation, is implemented, with people most at risk airlifted to tent cities being set up on fields.
Nicola Evans, an air-traffic controller, is forced to work late as her replacement does not turn up. Overworked, she accidentally sends an Aer Lingus jet into the path of a Czech freighter plane. She issues an instant instruction to 'Go-Around' to the Czech jet, which does so, avoiding the Aer Lingus plane, but colliding with the British Airways plane to Bilbao, sending burning wreckage spread across much of Hounslow and into London.
Aftermath
Nicola Evans is taken to court for multiple-manslaughter charges for her negligence. However, these are thrown out and she later attends a memorial service.
The total death-toll was 100:
- 5 died of hypothermia,
- 64 died on the planes,
- 23 died on the ground from the burning wreckage.
- The rest died in the rail and road accidents.
Similar Programmes
If..., a drama documentary series, portrayed several possible calamitous events, one of which was if the United Kingdom's gas supplies were to be cut, with much the same results.
External links
"The Day Britain Stopped"