Coroner calls for review of Smart Motorways

[Darcydog]

An inquest heard that the deaths of two men could have been avoided.

The accident was on the M1 June 7th 2019. Coroner David Urpeth said Smart Motorways without a hard shoulder carry “an ongoing risk of future deaths”.

Sgt Mark Brady, who oversees major collision investigations for South Yorkshire Police told the hearing “Had there been a hard shoulder, had Jason and Alexandru pulled onto a hard shoulder, my opinion is that Mr Szuba would have driven clean past them.”

Let’s hope something comes of this tragedy.

[Number 6]

Whoever thought up the Idea of "Smart Motorways" should be held culpable for the deaths of these people. As said "If there had been a hard shoulder the driver would have driven past them"

[It runs]

Smart motorways should be stopped immediately . The hard shoulder should be reinstated .
They are death by design.
The idea is fine but the camera systems at the moment are not effective coupled with the gantry systems are so far apart to warn of lane change restrictions .
Every time I use a ( smart motorway )
I reduce my speed . Look at my guages and take note of where the next safe lay-by is located .

[planenut]

If a driver stops a vehicle in any position on any road, it is the responsibility of every other driver to drive their vehicle safely and avoid it. If a lump of concrete were placed on a road and someone drove into it they would be in the wrong, why does it become the fault of someone not there if an accident occurs?

It is very sad that anybody loses their life or is injured or affected by loss and I personally think that the idea of "smart motorways" is stupidly ludicrous. The idea of this type of road layout is to accommodate the amount of traffic on the roads, but this introduces dangerous safety practices reliant on the abilities of all drivers, and those standards are lowering. When the inevitable accident occurs, though the onus is on the driver, someone else will be blamed. My own opinion.

[marinabrian]

Having recently driven on a smart motorway, and there is nothing smart about having no hard shoulder when your car suddenly loses power and speed reduced to a crawl.

It was fortunate there was a service area about two miles up the road, but travelling at a maximum speed of 45mph on a live motorway with no hard shoulder was a disaster waiting to happen

They should be reverted to design as soon as possible.

Brian

[Steamdrivenandy]

18 months ago we were driving north on the newly 'smarted' M6 between Holmes Chapel and Knutsford. We were in lane three of four in medium level traffic doing about 70mph.

Suddenly I became aware of dust and smoke about 4 or 5 vehicles ahead in Lane 2 and at the same time the smell of burning rubber entered to car. A large white vehicle up ahead veered from Lane 2 to lane 1 and luckily made it there without hitting anything as HGV's took emergency avoiding action. As we passed the stricken motorhome I could see, out of the corner of my eye, that the offside rear tyre was shredded and flailing against the bodywork and already there were signs of smoke coming from the wheel arch. It was another three quarters of a mile to the next refuge.

Three days later we did the return trip and as we passed that refuge we saw a large burnt patch on the new tarmac, plus a big area of burnt grass. Checking on the local news website the driver had decided to drive on, in anticipation of a refuge appearing and not wanting to risk stopping and being smashed into. By the time he reached the refuge the rear of the motorhome was well alight and was burnt out in the refuge. Luckily the driver and his three passengers escaped unharmed but it must've been a close thing.

[SCP440]

Having been in a car that broke down on a smart motorway I can say it is a scary experience. The car just died and as much as I could do it would not restart. I managed to get 2 wheels on the drainage channel but half of the car was still in the carriageway. Several vehicles including HGV's had to take avoiding action but luckily after 10 mins a Traffic Safety Officer arrived and towed us to the first pull in. Oddly the car restarted when the RAC arrived 30 mins later.

My wife was so upset she refuses to drive on a motorway now.

[trikey]

The designer of ‘smart’ motorways, should have their family sat in a car, broken down on the hard shoulder of a smart motorway.

I’m sure their idea would be changed rather swiftly.

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by trikey

The designer of ‘smart’ motorways, should have their family sat in a car, broken down on the hard shoulder of a smart motorway.

Should that not read 'sat in a car in the live lane a mile away from a refuge point'.

Kev

[BRG75]

I would just like to echo a point made in post 8.

Modern cars, by design, go into limp mode (at best) or engines just pack up.

The significant point being "without prior warning"

Pre modern electronics, you had a good chance of detecting a misfire, or similar, to warn you that a breakdown was on the cards, enabling you to get onto the hard shoulder (on a motorway) or to a "safe" parking location on other types of road.

Mike