Daft Top 10 of motorway madness

The M4 can throw up weird and scary sights Click here to read your motorway stories

The last thing officials expected to see on a motorway hard shoulder was two little girls pedalling their bikes.

But by the time a police car arrived to pick them up on the M4 in south Wales, they had ridden off through a hedge.

That was just one of the strange sights the M4 can throw up, including Santa tied to a gantry and thousands of tiny polystyrene balls on the loose.

Traffic Wales, which has 97 cameras on the M4, has drawn up a Top 10 of its unusual and dangerous spectacles.

Saska Shepherd, of Traffic Wales, which monitors vehicle flow and provides travel advice, explained: "We've seen all sorts of things.

Amazing as it sounds, we even had someone dump a sofa onto the outside lane on purpose Saska Shepherd, Traffic Wales

"Animals and humans on the carriageway are one of the most common things but there have been some weird things too."

"We've seen things like people dumping a sofa onto the outside lane from a van, to more than 200 army vehicles in convoy on one day.

"But I think one of the most worrying things we've seen is two little girls cycling along the hard shoulder.

"One of our CCTV operators spotted these two little girls who looked under the age of 10 on their bikes near Newport.

"He was horrified and zoomed in on them to keep an eye on them.

"We alerted the police straight away and they dispatched a patrol car but the children then went off the road through a gap in a hedge before the police could catch up with them.

THE M4's TOP 10 STRANGE SIGHTS 1. Protester dressed as Father Christmas tied to gantry 2. Two small girls cycling along the hard shoulder near Newport 3. More than 200 army trucks in convoy on one day 4. Thousands of escaped tiny polystyrene balls 5. A bull charging along the carriageway 6. A herd of sheep near the A48 7. Stray horses 8. Flocks of chickens 9. A pig running loose near the Second Severn Crossing 10. Fence posts, carpet and a dumped sofa

"It was really worrying because anything could have happened to them and all we could do was sit and watch them," she said.

One of the most familiar unwanted sights on the motorway is that of animals on the loose.

Camera operators have seen a bull seen running free, stray horses, sheep, a pig and chickens.

More unusual was the time a lorry lost its load of sacks of polystyrene balls.

"It was in the middle of summer and it looked like snow," said Ms Shepherd. "There were thousands of these tiny white balls everywhere.

"And then we had a day when the army was in a manoeuvre to Salisbury from Brecon.

Rolled-up carpets

"They started at four in the morning and it lasted until about four in the afternoon. More than 200 army vehicles used the motorway that day."

Another regular hazard spotted is loaded items falling off vehicles into the road.

"We've had fence posts, fence panels, rolled-up carpets all falling off the back of people's cars and vans.

"But amazing as it sounds, we even had someone dump a sofa onto the outside lane on purpose."

The M4 in Wales can cope with 3,800 vehicles an hour in its three-lane sections.

That falls to 2,700 in the two-lane parts, and after big events such as concerts or sporting fixtures in Cardiff, on average it has to cope with an additional 80,000 cars leaving the city.

CCTV operators monitor the cameras along the road 24 hours a day and report incidents of accidents or hazards to police.