The police have closed the Mountain Road 127 times in the past 24 months.

A freedom of information request by Isle of Man Newspapers follows a similar request to the Department of Infrastructure.

Of incidents between October 16, 2016, and August 30, 2018, 60 were in 2016/17 and 67 in 2017/18.

The majority of closures relate to road traffic collisions, with 78 accidents in the two years.

Further reasons include the road being closed at the request of TT race control, snow or ice, obstructions on the road or incidents listed as ’other’.

A large portion of incidents occur during the TT and Festival of Motorcycling periods.

During the 2017 TT, counting the period from May 28 to June 7, there were 27 closures of the mountain road of which 15 were because of RTCs.

In the same year, there were nine incidents during the FoM, counting from August 20 to August 31, of which six were road traffic collisions.

During the 2018 TT festival, the mountain was closed 38 times between May 27 and June 10, of which 34 were road accidents.

Of the 34, 10 occurred over two days, with five each on ’Mad Sunday’, June 3 and Thursday, June 7, which was a non-race day.

This year’s FoM saw six closures, of which five were for RTCs.

The 127 figure adds to the 31 closures revealed in a FoI request from the Department of Infrastructure for the same period.

The police said:’The constabulary has a duty of care to its staff and other road users. Road closures are a necessity to ensure that people are kept safe but are used as a last resort.’

The police also state that where possible, they arrange for diversions to be put in place to try and keep disruption for road users to a minimum. The response explains that the force is empowered to close the road in the event of ’extraordinary circumstances’ under section 17 of the Road Traffic Regulations Act of 1985.