I almost killed four people on ‘smart’ M4

On January 26,I was going to collect my daughter from her school in Reading.

I entered the M4 motorway at junction 8-9 going west and was driving on the inside lane.

The time being 18.20ish meant the motorway was in total darkness I drove for what seemed to be a mile or two and came across a broken down car being pushed by up to four people also on the inside lane.

Due to the fact that by pushing from behind the previous occupants completely hid any trace of rear lights and only when they came into view as people in the road pushing a car.

I braked hard and narrowly missed stopping in time to avoid a collision with them and the vehicle they were pushing.

I stayed behind the vehicle for a while with my hazard lights on.

I was now visibly shaking as I had been so close to killing the people in the road.

I waited until it was clear then changed lanes into the next lane adjacent to the vehicle being pushed all the time expecting people behind me to run into the broken down vehicle.

I needed to find a help phone a little way along so went back into the inside lane looking.

Maybe a half a mile or so the sign lit up designated lane closure and I saw a traffic officer walking back towards the car being pushed and a blue van also broken down in front.

I could now see the lane closure sign was illuminated but very dim.

I went to change lanes to second from left but a lot of traffic behind me meant that I had to wait until it was clear and safe to change lanes.

It would appear that the newly altered previously designated hard shoulder with all other lanes was now in full operation on a section of the motorway that was in total darkness.

Without carriageway lights working the new lane should not be open yet as it is too dangerous to have people out of broken down vehicles.

I came close to killing four or five people and the look of fear on the faces of the people pushing the car will be with me for a long time.

If this newly opened section of the motorway is as we are led to believe classed as a ‘smart motorway’ then maybe we need to rewrite the definition of ‘smart’ because these motorways are deadly and should have the hard shoulder reintroduced until commonsense prevails and motorways are made safe to use again.

DEREK SHARP

Maidenhead