Smart motorway ‘pc glitch’ led to six-car pile-up on M6
- Those concerned within the collision survived with minor accidents via ‘pure luck’
A ‘pc glitch’ led to a terrifying six-car pile-up on the M6 after the security system shut down in a ‘catastrophic failure’, insiders have claimed.
A automotive was left like a ‘sitting duck’ after breaking down on a lane on the southbound M6 on Jan 19, leaving the automobile stranded on an inside lane which was once a tough shoulder.
In the bombshell revelation, a whistleblower claimed that the National Highways’ programs ‘crashed’, disabling radar expertise that would choose up the damaged down automobile within the life-threatening incident which lasted for 3 hours.
The automotive was unable to maneuver to the emergency refuge space and was hit by autos between junctions 3A and three close to Coventry, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Those concerned within the collision suffered minor accidents, with the whistleblower describing the truth that nobody died as ‘pure luck’.
Control centres throughout England have been offline, with simply the South East and East remaining in motion,
In the bombshell revelation, a whistleblower claimed that the National Highways’ programs ‘crashed’, disabling radar expertise that would choose up the damaged down automobile
Due to the glitch, management room workers have been unable to shut lanes to visitors, set velocity limits and digital indicators or use CCTV cameras.
The nameless insider informed The Daily Telegraph: ‘We had no stopped automobile detection programs, no CCTV and no management of alerts and indicators.
‘The truth nobody was killed is pure luck.
‘Thankfully, God was watching over them, as a result of we actually weren’t.’
Campaigner Claire Mercer, 47, who has urged the Government to scrap all good motorways after her husband, Jason, died on the M1 in 2019, stated that it was solely a matter of time earlier than lives could be misplaced on on the perilous motorways in a ‘preventable tragedy’.
She informed the paper: ‘How many extra terrifying programs failures and stay lane breakdowns are going down that we don’t hear about?
Ms Mercer added that on this case, the driving force on the M6 had moved as far left as attainable, however was ‘left like a sitting duck’ as a result of there was no exhausting shoulder.
She added: ‘That expertise failure meant a breakdown grew to become a mass pile-up. When Dynac and its security programs fail, good motorways turn out to be dumb motorways.’
Campaigner Claire Mercer, 47, who has urged the Government to scrap all good motorways after her husband, Jason, died on the M1 in 2019
Ms Mercer added that on this case, the driving force on the M6 had moved as far left as attainable, however was ‘left like a sitting duck’ as a result of there was no exhausting shoulder
Jason Mercer (pictured) and one other man, Alexandru Murgeanu, died in 2019 after they have been hit by a lorry on the M1 close to Sheffield
The security programs shut down a complete of 41 instances final summer time, which function by detecting breakdowns on motorways with no exhausting shoulder and management the community’s CCTV to detect individuals in danger.
But between April and August 2023, there have been electrical energy provide issues lasting a complete of 541 hours throughout 52 separate days, with eight places having outages that lasted greater than 24 hours.
Smart motorways with out a exhausting shoulder have been additionally discovered to be 3 times extra deadly to interrupt down on than those who retain the security lane in a damning report launched in December final yr.
The research by National Highways, the quango answerable for main roads, additionally confirmed that the speed of ‘killed and severe harm’ (KSI) incidents throughout breakdowns on good motorways with no everlasting exhausting shoulder has elevated by 10 per cent.
KSI tragedies elevated for 3 out of 5 schemes with 5 years’ price of security information since having their exhausting shoulder eliminated. These have been the M1 junctions 39 to 42, M25 junctions 5 to 7 and M6 junctions 11A to 13.
Smart motorways with out a exhausting shoulder have been additionally discovered to be 3 times extra deadly to interrupt down on than those who retain the security lane
The research by National Highways confirmed that the speed of ‘killed and severe harm’ (KSI) incidents throughout breakdowns on good motorways with no everlasting exhausting shoulder has elevated by 10 per cent
The security programs shut down a complete of 41 instances final summer time, which function by detecting breakdowns on motorways with no exhausting shoulder and management the community’s CCTV
In April final yr, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduced he was halting new good motorways from being constructed.
But he stopped wanting scrapping greater than 400 miles of current schemes which have their exhausting shoulder completely eliminated.
Ms Mercer stated the Prime Minister ‘lacked the nerve’ to outright scrap good motorways, suggesting that Mr Sunak was delay from eliminating the damaging motorways due to the income generated from fines and the ‘large contracts’ which are awarded to non-public contractors to construct them.
Jason Mercer and one other man, Alexandru Murgeanu, died in 2019 after they have been hit by a lorry on the M1 close to Sheffield after they stopped on the within lane of the good motorway part following a minor collision.
Writing for the Mail in 2021, Ms Mercer describe how whereas posing for the {photograph} that accompanied the article on the bridge overlooking the junction on the M1 the place her husband was killed, she heard a ‘sickening thud’.
In April final yr, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduced he was halting new good motorways from being constructed
It turned out to be a collision between a automotive and a lorry on the opposite aspect of the street.
Ms Mercer wrote: ‘A lorry had slammed right into a automotive and dragged it a whole bunch of yards down the carriageway. I used to be in shock: my very own husband, in spite of everything, had died on the alternative aspect of the identical stretch of street’.
Edmund King, the president of AA, informed The Daily Telegraph: ‘As we’ve been warning for years, this good motorway experiment has failed but once more placing lives in danger by leaving automotive occupants as sitting geese.
‘Drivers have by no means trusted the system, so scrapping all good motorways is prone to be an enormous election difficulty.’
The National Highways spokesman added: ‘As with any expertise, there are occasional deliberate and unplanned outages and so we’ve well-rehearsed procedures to cope with points which come up.
‘We have further measures to restrict any influence on drivers or visitors stream, together with elevated patrolling by our visitors officers and energetic monitoring of CCTV.’
