Police have confirmed the A394 is to remain closed so a full serious crash investigation can be undertaken.

A driver has been airlifted with life threatening injuries and a woman was been taken to hospital by land ambulance with possibly serious injuries, after the crash, just outside Breage, this afternoon.


A force spokesperson was unable to give any indication as to when the road, the main route between Penzance and Helston, will re-open - but said it is expected to remain closed for some time.

The latest updates on this story can be found here.

This is why roads are closed for so long after a serious crash

When a serious crash happens, the road can be closed for hours. If this is a major road the disruption can be huge as traffic is moved from a motorway or major road onto other routes - often not designed to cope with high volumes of vehicles and large lorries.

The emergency services are aware of the disruption and try to keep it to a minimum.

But safely dealing with a crash can still take hours and this is why.

Simply the process of getting everyone safely away from the scene can be time consuming.

If there have been serious injuries or a death the crash scene has to be meticulously examined. The police will need to build an accurate picture of what happened before the crash.

Evidence may need to be given in court if it turns out a motoring offence has happened, or if an inquest or another inquiry takes place.

A crash scene can be chaotic and confusing and every possible piece of evidence at the scene needs to be collected.

A police spokesman said: "It's often difficult for people caught up in traffic jams on the motorway to understand why the road has to be closed for what appears to be a long time.

"We work hard to minimise disruption on the road network but as the timeline below shows, it's important for us and the family of the injured person(s) to understand exactly what happened."

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