One person died when a black VW Polo left the coastbound M20 between junctions 8 and 9 at 5.56am on Wednesday 23 September. Kent Police want dashcam footage.
One person died when a car left the M20 between junctions 8 and 9 early on Wednesday morning. Kent Police is now asking for witnesses and dashcam footage.
The force’s appeal, published at 3.34pm on Wednesday 23 September, says a black VW Polo was travelling on the coastbound carriageway at 5.56am when it left the motorway and went down an embankment on the nearside.
Emergency services attended and a fire at the scene was extinguished. The statement says the one occupant of the vehicle was confirmed to be deceased, and that enquiries are under way to identify their next of kin.
The carriageway was closed while officers from Kent Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit examined the scene. The force has not said how long the closure lasted, and it has not said what caused the car to leave the road.
Where it happened
The stretch between junctions 8 and 9 is the long rural run east of Maidstone. Junction 8 is the Hollingbourne and Leeds Castle exit, around five miles east of the town centre. Junction 9 is at Ashford.
The force’s statement gives the location as the coastbound carriageway between the two junctions. Its dashcam upload page for the incident is titled “fatal RTC M20 coastbound near junction 9”, which places it at the Ashford end of the stretch rather than the Maidstone end.
A second collision on the same stretch this month
This is the second incident on the coastbound M20 between junctions 8 and 9 that Kent Police has appealed over in ten days.
Shortly after 11pm on Monday 14 September, an unmarked patrol car, a blue Skoda Octavia with its lights and siren in use, was in a collision with a blue Nissan Qashqai near Charing. The officer was driving to an emergency call about a fatal collision in Tilmanstone, near Deal. No serious injuries were reported, and the three occupants of the Qashqai were taken to hospital as a precaution.
That separate appeal, published on 17 September, asks for the driver of a heavy goods vehicle with a white trailer that was in lane one when the collision happened in lane two. The contact number for that one is 01843 222289, quoting reference 14-1910.
How to help
Kent Police wants to hear from anyone who saw Wednesday’s collision, or who saw the black Polo before it happened.
- Call the Serious Collision Investigation Unit appeal line on 01622 798538.
- Quote reference RY/DH/075/26.
- Email the unit using the address on the appeal page.
- Upload dashcam or private CCTV footage through the force’s online evidence portal.
Footage from the early hours of Wednesday is the most useful. If you drove coastbound from Maidstone towards Ashford before 6am and have a dashcam that overwrites itself, save the file now.
What it means for you
- The motorway is open. The closure was for the investigation on Wednesday and is not an ongoing restriction. Planned works on the M20 near Maidstone, including the junction 6 slip road closure, are on our roadworks and travel page.
- Two appeals, two reference numbers. If you have footage from the night of 14 September, that goes to the earlier appeal (14-1910). Footage from the morning of 23 September goes to RY/DH/075/26.
- Coastbound means towards Ashford and the coast. Londonbound traffic towards Maidstone was not the carriageway named in either statement.
- If you were affected by the closure and travel that way regularly, the train times to London page covers the rail alternatives from Maidstone East and Maidstone West.
Kent Police has not named the person who died and Maidstone Live will not speculate about their identity. Anything further will come from the force’s own statements.
Have your say