Police have charged a 23-year-old man with careless driving following a five-car pile-up that closed a motorway for six and a half hours - minutes after the road had re-opened following an earlier incident.
Cops had barely left the scene on the M8 in West Lothian after responding to calls of "concern for a person" when the crash took place on the eastbound carriageway between Junctions 4 and 4a, between Whitburn and Blackburn. The road had re-opened at 2.45pm after being closed for three and a half hours due to prior events.
Officers closed the motorway in both directions again at 2.50pm after the smash took place in order to allow an air ambulance to land at the scene. The westbound carriageway re-opened at around 4.30pm - but traffic was diverted away from the eastbound lanes for hours to allow investigative work to take place.
