• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Motorway failure prompts fresh calls for ‘death trap’ roads to be axed

Home> News

Updated 08:58 23 Feb 2023 GMTPublished 08:21 23 Feb 2023 GMT

Motorway failure prompts fresh calls for ‘death trap’ roads to be axed

The outage took place in the middle of rush hour

Emily Brown

Emily Brown

Members of the public are calling for 'death trap' smart motorways to be scrapped after a two-hour software failure caused chaos during rush hour.

It can be frustrating enough to be forced offline when you're in the comfort of your own home, but being left isolated while also hurtling down a road at high speeds brings with it a whole new level of anxiety.

The Dynac system on England’s smart motorway network is responsible for operating signs and signals as well as detecting vehicles that have stopped on the road, but a failure rendered the system entirely useless between 8.30am and 10.30am yesterday (22 February).

The M5 was among the roads affected by the outage.
Stephen Hyde / Alamy Stock Photo

Advert

Smart motorways had already come under fire after a 2021 investigation revealed more than one in ten safety cameras were either broken, misted over or facing the wrong way on the roads, so the latest incident has only added more fuel to the fire.

The fault occurred across the M5, M6, M62 and M60 as well as the M1 north of Northampton, and meant that it was impossible to change the signals to close lanes where a hazard had been detected.

If a driver broke down in a lane with no hard shoulder, they would be forced to wait until they were spotted by CCTV or officer patrols rather than quickly being spotted by the smart motorway's stopped vehicle detection.

AA president Edmund King described drivers who might find themselves in this situation as 'sitting ducks'.

Smart motorways control signs and signals.
@AdrianPIC_Legal/Twitter

Advert

Andrew Page-Dove, operational control director at National Highways, apologised for any convenience caused in a statement to LADbible and assured the agency would 'urgently investigate the cause of this incident to help prevent a repeat'.

“Engineers worked at pace to restore and stabilise our traffic management system following an unplanned outage that took place on Wednesday morning," he continued.

“We have well-rehearsed procedures to deal with operational issues such as these. In this instance, we rapidly took steps to help ensure the safety of road users such as increased patrols and CCTV monitoring.”

Amid the issues, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion called for an end to the use of all-lane running smart motorways, accusing the government of 'prioritising increasing motorway capacity on the cheap and gambling the lives of motorists to get it'.

Members have public have voiced concern over the motorways.
@lornadiane1/Twitter

Advert

One of Champion's constituents, Jason Mercer, was killed on a smart motorway in South Yorkshire in 2019.

In January 2022, the government announced a decision to pause the construction of more all-lane smart motorways for five years amid safety assessments.

However, projects under construction before the announcement moved ahead because 'it was felt by National Highways it would be more detrimental' to put them on hold.

Champion noted that four new sections of all-lane running motorway are set to open this spring, saying: "While the government dithers, constituencies like mine continue to host death trap roads"

LADbible has contacted National Highways for comment.

Featured Image Credit: Paul Appleyard / PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: Cars, UK News, Technology

Emily Brown
Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

4 mins ago
26 mins ago
an hour ago
  • 4 mins ago

    Doctor issues warning about major mistake millions make while driving that is ‘slowing your brain down’

    Most cars have this button on the dashboard - but be mindful of how long you're using it for

    News
  • 4 mins ago

    Expert reveals disturbing reason why you should never tell your dark secrets to ChatGPT

    Perhaps a set of code using data it's mined from the internet archive isn't your BFF?

    News
  • 26 mins ago

    The dark happenings behind the scenes of ChatGPT that many people don't know about

    In 2023, OpenAI was subjected to controversy following a TIME magazine investigation into ChatGPT

    News
  • an hour ago

    Spanish government demand investigation into footballer Lamine Yamal's birthday party after 'dwarves exploited'

    The Barcelona footballer celebrated his 18th with a lavish party but was criticised for his antics

    News
  • Drivers Could Be Hit With Automatic £100 Fines For Smart Motorway Mistake
  • Brits Given Travel Warning As Huge Number Expected To Hit The Roads Over Easter
  • There's An Important UK Motorway That The Public Is Not Allowed To Use
  • Drivers could be fined £1,000 for parking the wrong way round