Change direction on these death trap roads
The introduction of electric vehicles as more smart motorways open is a recipe for disaster,
IN knowing that Government is still committed to constructing more socalled “smart motorways” while hoping the public and commercial vehicle users will switch to electric powered vehicles in the next decade, the question arises: Has the Government shot itself in the foot?
Why would you walk in an area which leaves you at risk of being attacked or drive on a smart-road (smart motorway) when there is absolute risk if your vehicle breaks down? Envisage the nightmare, driving happily along a deemed “smart motorway” and your vehicle’s power fails – resulting in you and any passengers potentially being stranded in what the Department of Transport (DOT) calls a “live lane”.
The anomaly of the “live lane” – more a “death lane” – is that dozens if not hundreds of vehicles continue to hurtle past at speeds often beyond the legal limits. If you are lucky, your powerless vehicle may have cruised to a standstill, leaving you hoping that those immediately behind have been able to swerve away – often putting themselves at risk – but at least giving you time to drift left towards what used to be a hard-shoulder. Today there are still very few “smart roads” with the aptly named “emergency refuge”. The lucky drift may have involved you crossing traffic lanes only to discover that you are nowhere near any “emergency refuge” which are constructed at 1.5 mile intervals. As a result the inside lane becomes a potential killing field.
This scenario foresees problems with electric vehicles, although conventional engines are not exempt from the issues, either. Mechanical engine problems rarely enforce immediate stops, and the ever increasing popularity of hybrid vehicles, also reduces this risk to life.
Recent headlines confirm the number of deaths on smart-motorways while producing horrendous stories and staggering numbers of incidents. On the M3 between Farnborough and the M25 alone there have been 2,200 incidents involving vehicles that have been unable to reach an emergency refuge. One retired traffic officer suggested to his Chief Constable and the Crown Prosecution Service that the agency Highways England ought to be subjected to prosecution using “corporate manslaughter” a not dissimilar position to that faced by P&O European Ferries in1987, after 193 people drowned when the Herald of Free Enterprise sank.
With Goverment remaining committed to abolition of all conventional petrol and diesel engines by 2035 (some say 2030) plus the DOT committed to smart motorways it all may not add up. If millions of drivers switched to electric vehicles “smart” roads day and night could become a nightmare. Just imagine engine failure at night, when maybe your side or headlights go out leaving the driver blind. Meanwhile behind you speeding drivers are approaching with nothing more than your reflectors proving that danger is ahead.
Yet perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here, maybe some form of secondary lighting should be compulsory on every road vehicle? The sheer number of breakdowns or near misses in recent years, recorded by gantry cameras, has now reached ten of thousands. Live lane breakdowns alone were 20,000 in the 2018-2019 year and it has recently been confirmed that this figure will likely double by 2025. Yet a Highways agency spokesman remarked “we are committed to implementing any new recommendations as part of our ongoing work to make our roads even safer” – continuing – “every single death in a road accident is a tragedy and safety is our number one priority”. Well the priority is failing as more than 40 people have been killed since the introduction of “smart-road” technology.
I believe the whole concept of smart roads must be reversed. Mr and Mrs Average as well as commercial vehicle operators, are unlikely to purchase or part exchange vehicles to go electric within the next decade. No official is going to be brave enough to state an acceptable number of deaths before Statutory powers have to be introduced to reverse the present situation. Even Grant Shapps the Transport Secretary said last year - “The £6 billion rollout of new “smart motorways” could be halted and “could be scrapped altogether” yet all he did was order a so-called “stocktake”.