Rogue truck swerving through Sydney tunnel prompts WestConnex closure

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A truck swerving around traffic in Sydney’s WestConnex tunnel on Sunday night prompted the operators to shut down the tunnels for safety, with motorists capturing dramatic footage of the incident.

The truck travelled the length of the tunnel in the wrong direction about 9pm, 7NEWS understands.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Shocking dashcam vision of near miss inside Sydney’s Westconnex tunnel.

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“We closed the tunnels, so there was no more oncoming traffic, to try and keep people safe,” Transurban maintenance operations manager Ashley Parnell told 7NEWS.

Shocked motorists can be heard gasping, screaming and beeping in dashcam footage capturing the truck as it heads west, towards them, swerving across multiple eastbound lanes.

“Look, he’s driving on the wrong side of the road,” one person is heard saying. “What the f*** was that,” another person can be heard saying as the vehicle passes them.

NSW Roads Minister John Graham described the footage and incident as “really scary”.

Dashcam footage captured the truck swerving in the wrong direction across eastbound lanes of the Westconnex on Sunday. Credit: 7NEWS

Ongoing police investigations have identified the rental company which hired out the vehicle, but are still looking for the driver.

It comes as speed limits are set to increase in sections of the underground road network.

“These roads are actually engineered (for vehicles) to go faster,” Graham said.

For eastbound traffic on the M5, between Riverwood and Beverly Hills, the speed limit will increase on Tuesday from 80km/h to 100km/h.

Then, when the final piece of the WestConnex project, the Rozelle interchange, is completed at the end of the year, the associated speed limit will be adjusted from 80km/h to 90km/h.