Investigation Reveals England's Smart Motorways Faced 22 System Outages Last Year

now the technology that runs most of England's so-called smart motorways experienced 22 system outages last year a special investigation by Good Morning Britain can now reveal let's take a closer look there are currently 256 miles of smart motorways in use throughout England and our investigation looked at a particular traffic management system which is in place in just over half of the network and that system shut down unexpectedly 22 times with the average outage lasting 20 minutes but in one case there was an outage of over 5 hours National highways are planning on introducing this particular system throughout the whole of England by the beginning of next year but they maintain that safety remains their highest priority well speaking to us now campaigner CLA Mercer who lost her husband in an accident on a smart Motorway back in 2019 your lovely husband Jason and she has information about smart motorways and the concerns of those working in the control room and also joining us Anna boures who suffered lifechanging injuries when a Lori crashed into her car welcome to you both Anna tell us what happened to you thank goodness you've recovered but not completely no no it's a long it's a long journey um good morning and thank you for having me um so yes um the recovery is still a long journey ahead um that day it's been almost a year I was driving on the M1 um I was going to work uh I had a flat tire so um I moved to the left lane I was looking for the hard shoulder when I reached the left lane I realized that there was no hard shoulder it was a live Lane um I was uh driving around 10 15 M hour and I put the hazard lights on so I was just the only thing I need to do at moment at that moment was to reach the next emergency Bay um it was like 400 yard away but I never got there because I was hit by a Lori did you see the Lori and since that that day I'm still sorry did you see the Lori approaching you through your rearview mirror no thank God I didn't I just happened uh I saw a few cars I saw a few cars behind me they I think three cars they moved to the right lane so I said I think I remember thinking to myself well they can't see me and I remember seeing a Lori uh far away from me uh and I thought that having the Lori behind me um at some quite considerable distance that he was covering my back somehow um but apparently he wasn't and he just hit me no I didn't see H how long had you been driving on that inside Lane do you think before you were struck um two minutes two three minutes jeez so it was only 2 minutes before you were hit yeah extraordinary what injuries did you suffer yeah so I broke the chest bone five ribs and I broke my my spine um I had several fractures on the spine two of them burst so the spine was not stable so I had to do a spinal uh surgery to fixate the spine oh Anna and just it's an obvious answer but let me just ask the question if you had been on a Motorway with a hard shoulder what would have happened um I would stop the car in the hard shoulder call for assistant the tire will be changed for sure and I will go back to work and you would not have been hit by a lorry from behind when you were on a smart Motorway in a dynamic live Lane well CLA Mercer you know all all about this in a tragic way because your husband Jason was killed back in 2019 and you have been a committed campaigner in the years since what do you make of the figures this morning from our foi request that there were more than 20 outages last year in the technology which warns drivers that there is a breakdown in the live Lane well it's just terrifying to see it spelled out like that I mean I think to be honest I think the situation has actually got a lot worse since that that data was released because of course they'll only release the data that specifically that you ask for but the the the situation is actually a lot lot worse but these outages spelled out and released in to to the to the media when they ask these questions if that's what they'll release what's what what is actually going on cuz that's actually just terrifying enough and you know how many times is this happening when when incidents like Anna's are happening you know was was the equipment working when she was nearly killed um half of the equipment wasn't even installed when my husband was killed and the other half wasn't working so it it just needs stopping now and it would be so quick and simple all they need to do is flick the switch and turn the first Lane off and we've got our hard shoulder back just taking you back to that awful Day in June in the summer of uh 2019 how did you get the news that your husband had been killed well I actually founded the police because the crash paralyzed the whole of the area it was near meow Hall in Sheffield and it just gridlocked the absolute entire area I'm eight miles away and I was aware that people weren't getting to work around here and my husband wasn't responding to to messages or contacting me or answering just even answering his phone which was very very unusual because I first contacted him saying just be careful there's a bad accident you know you might be late for work don't rush um and he just never responded and after two three hours of no responses I phoned the police and I said that I thought my husband was involved in the incident um and they asked me what made me think that and I told them I couldn't get hold of him and so they asked for his registration plate and then the line just went quiet and eventually the operator came back on and she said I need to put this through the system and um get someone to to and come back to you so I'm going to hang up and we'll ring you back and I thought that was an incredibly odd response but I thought that this was a great big crash from like the 80s where you know there was 30 odd people involved and in my brain I was still imagining that he was you know right at the back of this and pacing around swapping Insurance details I didn't know that only two people had been killed and he was one of them um but what I now know is that the police were already on their way to me they'd eventually managed to identify who was with which vehicle and there were actually almost immediately that I got off the phone I could see two hies through the the front door panel and I just answered the door and said is he alive um and they wouldn't answer me they they wanted me to come in and sit down and I wouldn't let them in until they told me if he was alive oh my god when after that awful awful afternoon in your life when did you discover when did you realize that this was a completely needless death when did you discover that that he broken down in the so-called you know inside smart Lane well I I'd never even heard the term smart Motorway I don't drive I've never driven but I'd never heard the term smart Motorway I mean we went um that route almost every day normally I would have been in the car any other day I would have been in the car with him but I was Ill that day and I wasn't going to work um and I I didn't know we went across under and along a smart Motorway every day to and from work and it was only a few days later um my my sister walked in the house everyone was looking after me I'd been taken up to my mother's um and my sister walked in the house she didn't know I was in the room and she she said it was one of them smart motorways and that was the first time I ever heard the term and I started Googling it and looking up what they were and I discovered that people did some people did know what what they were not everyone no one I knew knew what one was and if they did they thought it was to do with fines and driving in closed Lanes they thought it was the cameras for the for the closed lanes and speed limits um but there was people that that knew what they were and objected to them there had been consultations but and although National highways was legally obliged to to have a consultation they weren't obliged to listen to the results because absolutely every single emergency service expert industry area told them not to do it and they still went ahead and did it CLA you as part of your campaign have received messages haven't you from whistleblowers actually working in control centers telling you what's going on yeah what do they say to you they're absolutely desperate they they don't want to be sit there watch sitting there watching this Carnage that their hands are tied we've got them doing an incredibly difficult and stressful job and we're not giving them the tools to do it effectively they the software locks them out the software sets its own messages they can't control there's periods of times where they cannot control what messages are on display and then yet we get this sound bite from National highways saying whenever there's an outage we have um we have procedures we have well-rehearsed procedures there is no well rehearsed rehearse procedures I get the emails from the control office telling people telling me that I'm they're absolutely desperate I've I've had emails saying that there's people in tears while these outages are happening there is no well rehearse procedures and just to finish this conversation with with the obvious question we wouldn't be talking to you this morning and you would not be a widow had there been a hard shoulder available to your husband correct yep definitely it's a simple as that isn't it well thank you very much for coming on and and more power to your campaign um obviously we've spoken to National highways they've issued us a statement they've said this as with any technology there are occasional planned and unplanned outages during these outages there are well rehearsed procedures we just heard about them to respond quickly to live Lane stops in April 2023 the government announced that plans for new smart motorways would be cancelled in recognition of the lack of public confidence felt by drivers and cost pressures that followed pause in the roll out of new smart motorways previously announced in January 2022 um let us know what you think and uh our thanks to Claire and to Anna as well Anna good luck with your recovery um the government of course says that overall England continues to have some of the safest roads in the world but the problem is these smart motorways do not appear to be safe if you have broken down and we we know that drivers are changing their behavior on the smart motorways because they're worried in the case of David the hgv driver he's worried that there might be someone in the so he doesn't which which feels safer but of course he should be driving according to what is the you know what's the right way to drive um if you're affected by those issues you can find advice and support itv.com slh helplines

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 64,194

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, smart motorways, smart motorways uk, smart motorways uk speed cameras, smart motorway, smart motorway crash, m6 smart motorway, news live, smart motorway breakdown, smart motorway uk

Id: ps4gxEZo0xg

Length: 12min 36sec (756 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024