{"id":108811,"date":"2026-08-22T14:28:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T14:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108811\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T14:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T14:28:19","slug":"m20-forced-to-close-between-junction-4-for-leybourne-and-junction-6-for-maidstone-and-chatham-after-teenage-girl-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108811\/","title":{"rendered":"M20 forced to close between Junction 4, for Leybourne, and Junction 6, for Maidstone and Chatham, after teenage girl dies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Police have confirmed a teenage girl has died following a \u201cserious incident\u201d which has resulted in the closure of a large part of the M20 motorway for much of today.<\/p>\n<p>Officers have confirmed the girl was on the carriageway in the vicinity of a footbridge near Teapot Lane, Aylesford, when she was struck by vehicles including a Ford Transit and Vauxhall Corsa.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 355 243\" alt=\"Motorists cannot join the M20 from Castle Way in Leybourne\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"LW8KDOBI3H5SYWZ5C3V0.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.46\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LW8KDOBI3H5SYWZ5C3V0.jpg\" alt=\"Motorists cannot join the M20 from Castle Way in Leybourne\"\/>Motorists cannot join the M20 from Castle Way in Leybourne<\/p>\n<p>Emergency crews were summoned to the stretch of the eastbound motorway between Junction 4 for Leybourne and Snodland and Junction 5 for Aylesford at around 3.20am.<\/p>\n<p>The girl was confirmed dead at the scene. Her next of kin have been informed.<\/p>\n<p>That part of the road has been completely closed since then. The westbound section was closed completely for several hours, with all but one lane reopened at around 9am this morning.<\/p>\n<p>Police investigating the circumstances around the tragedy are now appealing for witnesses and dashcam footage in and around the area at the time.<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Kent Police said: \u201cOfficers are appealing to anyone who passed through this location between 3.15am and 3.28am, and witnessed a pedestrian in the carriageway, to contact them.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 4702 3458\" alt=\"Police have been at the scene since the early hours of this morning. Picture: Stock image\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"XNM51A40F85WH0WWIOZZ.jpg\" data-ar=\"1.36\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/XNM51A40F85WH0WWIOZZ.jpg\" alt=\"Police have been at the scene since the early hours of this morning. Picture: Stock image\"\/>Police have been at the scene since the early hours of this morning. Picture: Stock image<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMotorists with dashcam are also asked to check for footage that may assist the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnyone with relevant information should call 01622 798538 or email sciu.td@kent.police.uk quoting reference, 46\/138541\/26. Dashcam footage can be <a href=\"https:\/\/kep.uk.evidence.com\/axon\/community-request\/public\/4613854126\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">uploaded here<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Investigators remain at the scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have confirmed a teenage girl has died following a \u201cserious incident\u201d which has resulted in the closure&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[309,1082,307,1104,608,5,6],"class_list":["post-108811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-kent","tag-maidstone","tag-malling","tag-police-appeals","tag-traffic-and-travel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117139636442024776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}