Woman misses father's funeral because of M40 snarl up

10:04am Friday 16th May 2008

A GREAT grandmother missed her 91-year-old father's funeral because of a major accident on the M40.

Josephine Heald and her daughter Sarah were caught in stationary traffic on Friday, after a three car crash closed the southbound stretch at Beaconsfield for four hours.

Two people were seriously injured in the pile-up between junctions 2 and 1a, which happened just before 2pm.

Many drivers stuck in the gridlock got out of their vehicles as they waited for the wreckage to be cleared. Singer Amy Winehouse was among those pictured trapped in the queues.

Mrs Heald, 70, who does not drive, was picked up by Sarah from her home in Oakridge Road, High Wycombe, at around 2pm, to get to the service for her dad, Peter Watts, in Middlesex for 4pm.

But soon after joining the motorway at Handy Cross the pair came to a standstill after hitting the backlog of traffic.

As the hours ticked past Sarah became "frantic" as she was worried they would run out of petrol and she would not get back in time to pick her daughter up from a childminder.

Mrs Heald, a great-grandmother-of-four, said: "My eldest daughter lives in Somerset and she managed to get there, my sister lives in Chieveley (Berkshire) and she managed to get there.

"Everyone who managed to go to the actual funeral, they had closure, but I seem to have been left in mid-air."

The retired mum-of-four, who used to work in catering, had been planning her father's funeral for weeks after he died on April 29, following a long battle with cancer.

Missing the service was particularly painful as she and Sarah had not seen him since March 2007.

"By the time we got to the reception in the evening it was quarter to seven," she said. "When we actually arrived my daughter was crying, she said I can't face everyone, I have let everyone down'."

Mrs Heald added: "The M40 deprived me of saying goodbye to my father.

"I can't live that moment again because he's gone now and I wasn't able to be there."

Police are appealing for witnesses to Friday's crash. Contact Sgt Martin Harper on 08458 505 505 or anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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