21 April 2023 , 13:54
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An elderly driver stuck in a motorway traffic jam has been filmed trying to remove cones and heading into another lane before being stopped by an irate workman.
Vehicles could be seen waiting in a queue during roadworks when the woman tried to make a break into a lane where the traffic was moving more fluidly.
HGV driver Anthony Foulkes was among the other vehicles waiting for an accident to clear on the A12 near Colchester, Essex, last Tuesday when he filmed the "cheeky" Ford Fiesta driver making her move.
The 46-year-old's video shows the woman walk into a coned-off area that separates the waiting cars and a free-flowing lane to move two rows of cones apart and create a gap.
She then gets back in her vehicle and takes a sharp right through the first row and appears to wait for a gap to turn into the other lane.
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The woman is seen trying to remove the traffic cones (Kennedy News and Media)
The driver is stopped from trying to change lane (Kennedy News and Media)But a man in a high-viz jacket stops her in her tracks, appearing to warn her of the danger, and telling her to return to the queue before wearily returning the traffic cones.
Anthony joked on the video that the woman was "too posh to wait".
He said that travellers had to wait around 55 minutes until the accident in the road works was cleared.
The video has been viewed more than 300,000 times with users calling the incident "unbelievable".
Anthony, from Preston, Lancashire, said: "She's just impatient and too posh to wait. I couldn't believe she was actually doing it.
"A lady of her age should know better, if it was a 20-year-old lad then I'd understand it. She couldn't even lift the cones. Luckily a hero in a hi-viz turned up.
"She had ants in her pants. She was out of her car in around six minutes. She chatted to some people in front and behind then built up some courage.
The woman returns to the queue (Kennedy News and Media)
The workman returns the traffic cones to their places (Kennedy News and Media)"She moved them all wrong. She should have staggered the cones so the gaps were on an angle so she didn't have to make such a sharp left and then a sharp right. She messed it up.
"If she hadn't been stopped, a HGV could have been coming and wouldn't have been able to stop then he'd have to move into the lane to his right that was moving the opposite way.
"The cones are there for a reason. You've just got to put up with it. Everyone else has to. If someone's had an accident you can't do anything about it."
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The incident, which happened at around 1.50pm, occurred in an area where a contraflow system is in place, where a lane is created travelling in the opposite direction to usual.
Anthony said it was because there were roadworks being done on the usual lanes, and the accident caused the lengthy backlog.
His video, captioned 'stuck on the A12, and this patient lady hasn't got time to wait', has been shared more than 2,000 times.
One commented: "Oh my goodness. The cheek of some people," and another said: "Unbelievable."