Smart Motorways campaigners in ‘shock and disbelief’ after whistleblower warns planned Smart Motorway outage
A widow who lost her husband last year on a stretch of the M1 last year has been left in ‘shock and disbelief’ after a whistleblower at National Highways revealed a Smart Motorway outage[1] was planned.
A National Highways worker said there was planned maintenance on the M1 between Junctions 30 and 31 on Wednesday, August 30, from midday until 1.30pm. The maintenance work meant that Stopped Vehicle Detection was down.
This detects broken down vehicles in live lanes on smart motorways[2]. The National Highways worker said: “People need to stay away if they can. It’s not safe.”
Do you agree with the scrapping of new smart motorways?[3]
‘Shock, disbelief and devastated’ are just some of the words widow Wendy Steer feels about the outage. Wendy sadly lost her 53-year-old husband Andrew in January last year after his van hit a stationary lorry on a stretch of the M1.
The crash happened near Junction 25 near Nottingham. Wendy, along with other bereaved families, have been campaigning for smart motorways to be abolished.
“I’m absolutely in shock and disbelief that they knew this”. Explaining about the Stopped Vehicle Detection, she continued: “When it detects it [the stopped vehicle] that’s when the warnings come on. If it’s turned off obviously the warnings are not going to come on – the warnings didn’t come on for my husband, there were not warnings there.
“The warning came on after about after the 8th car after the crash. I’m quite upset that they can turn it off because after my husbands crash they decided to do it manually – that’s what I was told.”
Wendy explained that she has previously spoken to the controllers who oversee the signs over the phone about manually controlling the signs when works are in place.
Andrew and Wendy Steer (Image: Wendy Steer)
She continued: “They said that in the future if there are roadworks they’re going to do it manually and that’s what they told me. Not rely on the sensors and obviously, they’re not doing that.
“They told me they were putting manual things in place – I’m just devastated. I thought at least after my husband’s death something would come out of it – they’re not going to let this happen again. That’s what I’ve been saying to people ‘at least things are going to get better’ but, it hasn’t. I’m in shock actually.”
Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed[4] on a stretch of the M1[5] with no hard shoulder in 2019, added: “It happens quite regularly it’s just we don’t often get to find out about it. I was going to say it frustrates me but it’s more than frustration because it’s incredibly dangerous.
“Nowhere else in day-to-day life are we allowed to let people take massive risks without informing them when we know in advance. I just don’t understand why – motorways are already dangerous so why do we let this happen? Why are we constantly not told?
Claire Mercer and her husband, Jason, 44, who was killed on the M1, junction 34, a section of smart motorway
“If you’ve got the choice, I know a lot of us have got to go the same route to work and do the same things that we have to do. But, I get a lot of emails from people saying I use the A roads. I get hundreds of emails a year, saying ‘I use the A roads I don’t use the motorways.
“If people knew about it some people could choose not to be there.”
“It makes a massive difference to taking away a hard shoulder and swapping it with something that doesn’t work. Emergency refuge areas don’t work either, how does an emergency refuge allow emergency vehicles through? It doesn’t.”
Claire now works to ban Smart Motorways and has become one of the most vociferous campaigners in the country.
Nottinghamshire Live is also campaigning against Smart Motorways, and we are asking for the government to reinstate hard shoulders on all these roads.
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References
- ^ Smart Motorway outage (www.nottinghampost.com)
- ^ smart motorways (www.nottinghampost.com)
- ^ Do you agree with the scrapping of new smart motorways? (xd.wayin.com)
- ^ whose husband Jason was killed (www.nottinghampost.com)
- ^ of the M1 (www.nottinghampost.com)
- ^ here (www.nottinghampost.com)