The smart motorways computer safety system shut down across much of the country, leading to a six-car pile up after a vehicle broke down in a live lane. The Telegraph has revealed....
A whistleblower has told how National Highways’ systems “crashed”, which disabled the radar technology that detects stranded vehicles, leaving control room staff unable to close lanes to traffic, set speed limits and electronic signs or use CCTV cameras.
The “catastrophic failure” culminated in a pile-up on the southbound M6 on January 19th when a car was left a “sitting duck” after breaking down on the inside lane, which used to be a hard shoulder. The vehicle failed to reach an emergency refuge area on the “all lane running” stretch of the motorway before being hit repeatedly by other vehicles between junctions 3a and 3 near Coventry.
The National Highways whistleblower, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “We had no stopped vehicle detection systems, no CCTV and no control of signals and signs.
“The fact no one was killed is pure luck.
“Thankfully, God was watching over them, because we certainly weren’t.”
A National Highways spokesman said the “unplanned outage” lasted three hours, with the six-car collision resulting in only “minor injuries”.
This latest system failure and subsequent multiple collisions would not have come to light without the whistleblower risked contacting The Telegraph.
The Dynac software, which controls gantry signs and signals – including the “red X” which closes lanes to traffic – as well as the stopped vehicle detection radar, shut down between 5.25pm and 8.30pm. Control centres in the North West, Yorkshire and North East, West Midlands, East Midlands and South West went offline, leaving only the South East and East operational. In 2021, The Telegraph revealed how Dynac had been nicknamed “Die Now” by staff because it was “prone” to bugs and shut-downs.
Claire Mercer, who has campaigned for the Government to scrap all smart motorways after her husband, Jason, died on the M1 in 2019, said it was only a matter of time before numerous lives were lost in a single “preventable tragedy”. She said: “How many more terrifying systems failures and live lane breakdowns are taking place that we do not hear about?
“National Highways tells motorists to move left in an emergency. But, this driver on the M6 moved as far left as possible, but was left like a sitting duck because there was no hard shoulder.
‘All smart motorways should be scrapped’
Simon Williams, the RAC’s head of policy, said: “It’s frightening to see just how fragile our so-called smart motorways are. When lives depend on technology there should be fail-safes in place to prevent this kind of incident from happening.
“This proves that safety technology and emergency refuge areas can never replace the hard shoulder. We once again urge the Government to act before it’s too late.”
https://www.telegrap...wn-m6-coventry/
