Sat navs to blame for rise in cars driving on wrong side of motorways

The number of drivers travelling the wrong way on motorways has risen 13 per cent in a year, with an over-reliance on sat nav directions partly to blame.

There were more than 16 cases every week of “oncoming vehicles” reported on England’s motorways in the year to June 19.

The 872 incidents were up from 770 in the previous 12 months, National Highways figures show, with some having tragic consequences^[1].

Edmund King, president of the AA, warned that the trend of drivers who “follow sat nav directions without thinking” could partly explain the rise, “for example, to ‘take the third exit’, without actually checking the signage, and therefore they can make mistakes”.

One of the most serious wrong-way driving on motorways involved a stolen van driven into oncoming traffic by a 15-year-old boy before it collided with a taxi on the M606 near Bradford, West Yorkshire, in June last year, leaving three men dead^[2] – the driver Sohail Ali, 28, his passenger Simon McHugh, 49, and an 18-year-old van passenger Kyden Leadbeater.

Meanwhile, Gloucestershire Constabulary recently released footage of a four-vehicle crash caused by Dorothy Denny, 65, who was more than three times over the drink drive limit, driving the wrong way on the M5 near Tewkesbury for more than two miles in October last year.

The data, released under freedom of information laws, relates to unconfirmed reports of wrong-way driving received by regional operations centres at National Highways, the quango that runs motorways.

Speed limits are usually reduced to 20mph on motorway stretches where a vehicle being driven towards other traffic is reported.

Sheena Hague, National Highways director of road safety, said: “Safety is our top priority and our traffic officers are called out to hundreds of thousands of incidents each year, including collisions, breakdowns and debris.

“Thankfully the number of reports of oncoming vehicles is low, however we treat them seriously by setting signals to warn and inform drivers for every report of a vehicle driving the wrong way on our motorways.

“We design our motorways to be as intuitive as possible to reduce the likelihood of anyone driving the wrong way.”

Mr King said: “The increase in the number of vehicles being driven in the wrong direction on motorways is frightening and can be fatal.

“Various incidents seem to be clearly down to drunk drivers for which there is absolutely no excuse. These drunk drivers should not be on the roads.

“Generally the slip road layout and signage is designed to ensure joining the motorway in the right direction is intuitive.”

‘Use common sense’

Mr King urged motorists to “use common sense” and not “over-rely” on the sat nav. The popular devices can malfunction^[4] when they have a weak GPS signal, or when road layouts are changed.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “To most drivers it’s the stuff of nightmares to think that anyone could drive the wrong way down a motorway.

“Yet despite highway engineers’ best efforts to make it hard to mistake the off-ramp for a slip road, these numbers show there’s a lot more work to be done.

“Could more be done with technology^[5] – perhaps slip-road sensors that trigger roadside warnings?

“The ability of information to be fed to and from our increasingly connected and intelligent cars must create the opportunity for alerts to be generated and displayed within the vehicle.”

Jo Shiner, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing, said it was “concerning to see the number of incidents rising”.

Drivers who see a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction are urged to contact 999 if it is safe to do so or use a motorway SOS phone to alert the authorities.

References

1. ^{^} tragic consequences (www.telegraph.co.uk)
2. ^{^} leaving three men dead (www.telegraph.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Examples of wrong-way driving (cf-particle-html.eip.telegraph.co.uk)
4. ^{^} The popular devices can malfunction (www.telegraph.co.uk)
5. ^{^} more be done with technology (www.telegraph.co.uk)