DESPITE the chaos that was caused by yesterday’s closure of the M4 after a lorry fire in the Brynglas Tunnels our overwhelming feeling today must be one of relief.

Under different circumstances we could have been reporting on multiple deaths after a lorry caught fire and blew up in the tunnel.

But miraculously no-one was killed or injured in the accident, although the lorry driver himself was incredibly lucky to be rescued and taken out of the westbound tunnel before the explosions.

Exactly what happened and in what timeframe will take some time to unravel.

But the grim reality for thousands of motorists was to be stuck in endless traffic jams, relying on radio or social media such as the Argus Twitter feed to update them on what was happening. Once again this accident showed what reliance Newport must place on the Brynglas Tunnels, for it was not only drivers on the M4 whose journeys were disrupted, but also local drivers, who found many roads leading in and out of the city gridlocked.

There is little that can be done, however, to reduce this vulnerability now that the building of an M4 relief road has been shelved for at least a generation.