On this day in auto history – February 16th

Tue 16th Feb 2021

It was on this day in 1980 that the longest reported traffic jam in history occurred on an autoroute between Lyon and Paris.

Caused by a mixture of atrocious weather and hordes of Alpine holidaymakers returning back to the Paris area, the notorious event saw drivers trapped in their vehicles for hours on end.

Some estimates had the traffic as backing up over 110 miles (176 km)!

In all, the staggering snarl-up is estimated to have involved over 18 million vehicles.