A SEEMINGLY small collision caused an enormous headache for commuters on the A1(M) and the M25 this morning.

At around 8am today (Thursday), an HGV collided with a van on the junction interchange of the two motorways at South Mimms.

No one was injured, and the vehicles were not seriously damaged, but the problem was compounded when the HGV’s clutch failed.

That meant a heavy tow truck had to be called to move the broken down HGV – closing two lanes of the junction interchange by necessity.

The recovery caused huge tailbacks on both the A1(M) and the M25.

In particular, the A1(M) southbound carriageway was backed up from the interchange at junction one to junction three Hatfield.

The ant-clockwise carriageway of the M25 was also badly effected, with queues from the interchange at junction 23 to junction 26.

A Highways Agency spokesman said the HGV was removed and the interchange fully re-opened shortly after 10.30am.

“The incident itself wasn’t particularly complex,” he said. “It was the logistics of getting a heavy recovery vehicle through all that traffic.

“We had some fairly severe congestion on the A1M back to around junction three, and on the M25 back to between junction 26 and 27.”