Stay off the M1, whistleblower warns: Highways insider says smart motorway system that detects broken-down vehicles in live lanes is down
Stay off the M1, whistleblower warns: Highways insider says smart motorway system that detects broken-down vehicles in live lanes is down
- There is an outage on the M1 between Junctions 39 and 42, with planned work
A whistleblower at National Highways – the government-owned company which operates motorways and major roads in England – says a planned Smart Motorway[2] outage is putting lives at risk.
It means that Stopped Vehicle Detection is down, which detects broken down vehicles in live lanes on smart motorways.
Currently there is an outage on the M1 between Junctions 39 and 42, with planned maintenance work.
A whistleblower told LBC[3] that there is planned maintenance for this afternoon on the M1 between Junctions 30 and 31, from midday until 1:30pm.
The National Highways worker said: 'People need to stay away if they can. It's not safe'.
Claire Mercer from the campaign group Smart Motorways Kill said: 'Yet again, time after time it's just proven that the 'smart' motorway system is not fit for purpose.
Currently there is an outage on the M1 between Junctions 39 and 42, with planned maintenance work
Campaigners said there have been at least 79 deaths linked to smart motorways, while government figures say there were 38 recorded deaths between 2015 and 2019
'These 'planned outages' are a serious concern, why are we not informed so we can choose whether to use a system that is not working.'
Ms Mercer, who lost her husband Jason on the same motorway in June 2019, added 'Where else in day to day life are we not informed that a dangerous environment is more dangerous than normal, the governing body know about it and aren't telling us?
'Surely this is not just dereliction of duty of care it's active endangerment of the public'.
Campaigners said there have been at least 79 deaths linked to smart motorways, while government figures say there were 38 recorded deaths between 2015 and 2019.
Pressure has long been mounting on the Government to scrap the routes, which have been criticised by MPs and road safety campaigners, including the RAC and AA.
Jason Mercer and another man, Alexandru Murgeanu, died in 2019 when they were hit by a lorry on the M1 near Sheffield after they stopped on the inside lane of the smart motorway section following a minor collision.
Claire Mercer, whose husband was killed on a smart motorway in South Yorkshire
Clair's husband Jason (pictured together) and another man, Alexandru Murgeanu, died in 2019 when they were hit by a lorry on the M1 near Sheffield
Claire Mercer also pledged to continue pushing for the hard shoulder to return on every road. She is pictured marching in Westminster in Novemeber 2021
AA president Edmund King said: 'We have had enough coroners passing down their deadly and heart-breaking judgments where the lack of a hard shoulder has contributed to deaths.
'At last the Government has listened and we are delighted to see the rollout of 'smart' motorways scrapped..
'We would also like to see the hard shoulder reinstated on existing stretches in due course.'
In January 2022, the Government paused the expansion of motorways where the hard shoulder is used as a permanent live traffic lane.
This was to enable five years of data to be collected to assess whether they are safe for drivers.
In his Tory leadership campaign last summer, Mr Sunak vowed to ban them.
'All drivers deserve to have confidence in the roads they use to get around the country,' The Telegraph quoted him as saying.
'That's why last year I pledged to stop the building of all new smart motorways, and today I'm making good on that promise.
'Many people across the country rely on driving to get to work, to take their children to school and go about their daily lives, and I want them to be able to do so with full confidence that the roads they drive on are safe.'
Mrs Jacobs (left) has said it is hard to continue going on without her late husband Derek (pictured right)
The moment the Ford Ka hit Mr Jacobs van on a smart motorway before flipping over in the carriageway and ending up on its side in a crash was caught on dash cam
Derek Jacobs, 83, was killed when his van was hit by the red Ford Ka on the M1 near Sheffield in March 2019.
The passenger in the Ford Ka, Charles Scripps, 78, died in hospital two months after the collision.
Dashcam footage from a vehicle behind showed how the car, driven by Mr Scripps' wife Jean, collided with the van, flipped in the air and rolled into oncoming traffic, where it was ultimately hit by a coach.
A coroner ruled that the crash would not have happened if there was a hard shoulder for Mr Jacobs to pull into.
His widow, Sally Jacobs, refused to attend the inquest despite having to wait for four years to see a ruling over the tragic death.
She said she has been unable to mourn her husband's death, instead channelling her energy into campaigning against the motorways and petitioning National Highways and the Department for Transport to reinstate hard shoulders on every major road.
Ms Jacobs told ITV earlier this week: 'I can't bring Derek back, but I keep on campaigning because I don't want any other family to suffer in this way.
'66 years I loved this man and it's very difficult to go on living without him.
'Please please listen to us now, reinstate the hard shoulder... You paint the white line, you put the crosses up, and those cameras can be used for all the other lanes.'
'Please please somebody out there listen before there's any more deaths or a terrible catastrophe.'
References
- ^ Dan Sales (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Smart Motorway (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ whistleblower told LBC (www.lbc.co.uk)