Smart motorway horror for family
Lorry hits van on stretch with no hard shoulder
A FAMILY last night told how they survived a crash when they broke down on the M6 as it was being converted into a smart motorway. Duncan Montgomery and his scots wife ellie were on their way to scotland with their three daughters when they suffered engine trouble.
Because there was no hard shoulder, they had no choice but to sit inside their car in the slow lane.
As they were speaking to a 999 operator a lorry, travelling at between 50mph and 60mph, rammed into the back of their van.
The two parents and their five-yearold daughter rose were knocked unconscious – but none of the family suffered more than minor injuries.
Mrs Montgomery, 34, and Mr Montgomery, 35, now live in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
According to Mrs Montgomery’s Facebook page she studied at st Andrews University and edinburgh Napier University before moving to London to work for BBC News.
Mr Montgomery told Channel 4 News he was the first to come round. he said: ‘I firstly dragged myself back, I had a dead leg so I couldn’t really move.
‘Glass was smashed everywhere, the whole side of the van was halfway across the carriage. I got rose and dragged her into the front driver’s seat where she was throwing up blood.’
An audio recording of the 999 call, released by the police and made public by the family, includes the moment the crash took place. Mr Montgomery is heard telling the operator that he had stopped with his hazard lights on.
he says he was with his family, before shouting ‘Oh s***’ as a loud crash is heard.
The operator keeps asking ‘hello?’ but there is no reply.
The crash, in which the family were stranded in a ‘live’ lane still open to traffic – just as they would have been had the smart motorway been operational – fuelled safety fears among motorists.
It happened over Christmas on part of the M6 in Cheshire where the hard shoulder was closed to prepare for a smart motorway.
Under the scheme, the hard shoulder becomes a regular lane and motorists whose cars break down need to use refuge areas a mile or more apart.
There are also extra signs and other technology which sees traffic monitored remotely. But Mr Montgomery said nothing could prevent similar incidents occurring again.
he added: ‘With people up and down the country in call centres looking at the road network, there isn’t a hope that they can review things quick enough and react, let alone enforce signs.’
A spokesman for the highways agency said: ‘This stretch of the M6 in Cheshire has roadworks in place and is not an operational smart motorway. There is a reduced 50mph speed limit through the roadworks with CCTV for driver safety.
‘smart motorways have extra on-road information, emergency areas, signs and technology which means we are better able to spot people and close lanes when drivers get into difficulty.
‘evidence shows they are equally as safe as traditional motorways, which are themselves among the safest in the world. Meanwhile, statistics show that in each year since 2011, more than 20 people have been killed or seriously injured on hard shoulders.’
Concerns about smart motorways have led to the highways agency promising to install more emergency lay-bys where the hard shoulder has been removed.
‘Glass was everywhere’