bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-s … e-56030027
“Highways England should be investigated over possible manslaughter charges after a woman’s death on a smart motorway, a coroner has said.”
“It took 22 minutes for warning signs to be switched on after the car Mrs Begum’s was travelling in broke down”
I really wish people warned the government about the dangers of smart motorways… Oh wait…
Sad news i dont know the full ins and outs however when driving down the motorway i see people sat in there seats broken down in a live lane + not even attempting to glide to a refuge area
So Highways England had “seven or eight staff to monitor 450 cameras”. How about Highways England have enough staff to monitor seven or eight cameras each? and do the job properly.
Posted about this threat about this coroner wanting to report this case to the cps wanting to have the highways agency charged for manslaughter in December last year, as it took 22 minutes for sign to be activated Highways England could face manslaugh charge - THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE) - Trucknet UK a coroner in Kent has also said the same thing after an incident resulting in someone dying on smart motorway down there.
I was surprised to hear that getting out of your vehicle when broken down in a live lane isn’t definitive - left to a judgement call effectively.
highwaysengland.co.uk/road-safe … eakingdown
I would expect if you follow the advice as stated, once you have moved over as far as you can to the left, there will often be no chance of leaving the vehicle by the left door given the barrier or fencing.
With some time spent on breakdown recovery, though never working on ‘smart’ motorways, I can say that the experience of breaking down on a motorway, probably more the first time it happens to them, can be emotionally tough for some people. To arrive and find someone in tears is by no means unheard of. In that state making rational decisions could be tricky for some.
Having worked on a section of Smart motorway, drivers make them dangerous, not the design of the road. I despise Highways England senior management but not all the blame can be aimed at them. Drivers break down in live lane and do not dial 999. Drivers stop for no reason in live lane. Drivers do not drive to an appropriate standard.
BUT, Highways England did not employ the resources, on and off road, to manage Smart motorways effectively. A great deal of the time control rooms and on road patrols were at, or below, minimum levels. Understaffing was an issue, leaving control room operators having to manage too many cameras and on road patrols having to travel great distances to incidents.
extrucker:
Having worked on a section of Smart motorway, drivers make them dangerous, not the design of the road. I despise Highways England senior management but not all the blame can be aimed at them. Drivers break down in live lane and do not dial 999. Drivers stop for no reason in live lane. Drivers do not drive to an appropriate standard.
BUT, Highways England did not employ the resources, on and off road, to manage Smart motorways effectively. A great deal of the time control rooms and on road patrols were at, or below, minimum levels. Understaffing was an issue, leaving control room operators having to manage too many cameras and on road patrols having to travel great distances to incidents.
Had to reply to quote you cause you made a major point there which a lot of people don’t seem to understand let alone be aware of. If you break down in a live lane of a motorway you should immediately call 999 for assistance as the vehicle occupants and other road users are at serious risk
Whatever they are they are no longer ‘motorways’ in the accepted sense.Maybe still with the exception of the M40.
They are just highly regulated routes made to move a lot of traffic as slowly as possible.Often local junction hopping traffic.
The result being a pointless liability unsafe at any speed.
That’s a ‘motorway’ designed to move traffic at high speed over long distances.The provision of a hard shoulder for emergency use being an essential part of that.
youtube.com/watch?v=ib5w4pnw … e=emb_logo
Chris Cooke:
Had to reply to quote you cause you made a major point there which a lot of people don’t seem to understand let alone be aware of. If you break down in a live lane of a motorway you should immediately call 999 for assistance as the vehicle occupants and other road users are at serious risk
The problem is though as you point out. A lot of people are not aware of this.
I wonder how many people have not used the designated refuges areas on smart motorways when they could of.
The smart motorways were designed assuming that drivers are fully aware of the highway code. That fact is though, most are not. They did not factor in how ignorant most road users actually are.
adam277:
The smart motorways were designed assuming that drivers are fully aware of the highway code. That fact is though, most are not. They did not factor in how ignorant most road users actually are.
But when it’s the dumbed down speed regime they say that they have to cater for the lowest common denominator of ‘driver’ that can’t handle speeds over 50/60/70.
Smart motorways were designed to move as much traffic as possible as slowly as possible.In total contradiction with the rule of lane discipline and at the expense of potentially stopped vehicles in live lanes with removal of the emergency shoulder, thereby defeating the object of motorways.
Increasing the amount of ( overtaking ) lanes, at the expense of breakdown provision safety, while maintaining, if not lowering, the speed limit proves it.
Thereby contradicting the rule only use the lane to the right when overtaking traffic in all the lanes to the left.
No stopping,
Use hard shoulder in emergencies.
adam277:
they have to cater for the lowest common denominator of 'driver.
Can you imagine if the same safety standards were applied to the design of domestic wiring. The new 19th edition wiring regs rewritten by Highways England. “We could put a safety shutter into the wall outlet to stop people poking screwdrivers in, and put a safety sheaf on the live and neutral pins on the socket but there’s no need. People aren’t that stupid”
I’m a wannabe new driver and I’ve only driven on smart motorways a couple of times heading “darn sarf” with the caravan. I felt really uneasy. Glad we don’t use them where I come from.
Chris Cooke:
If you break down in a live lane of a motorway you should immediately call 999 for assistance as the vehicle occupants and other road users are at serious risk
Thats great except for anyone without a mobile phone who would previously be on the semi relative safety of the hard shoulder and could go to an emergency phone.
Plus it helps if you know where you are. Highways can track you from the marker posts, the blue little location signs or orange phones, but the advice always used to be use those instead of 999 as emergency services don’t know where they are. I doubt that problem has changed.
I assume people calling 999 is why we get miles of “obstruction reported” mesages instead of localised area.
It woupd also help if they did prominent adverts telling people of the changes. My parents don’t leave ■■■■■■■ very often so have never seen a smart motorway. Repeat that over a million or 10 drivers and they’ve likely never heard of a motorway refuge area so people are more likely to panic before they work out what to do.
