Smart motorway ‘confusion’ is risking lives, says coroner

A CORONER has warned how smart motorways can “confuse” motorists who may not know whether a hard shoulder is open or closed to traffic, placing lives at risk.

Emma Brown, the West Midlands area coroner, has written to both Highways England and the Chief Coroner alerting them to her concerns following an inquest into the death of an eight-year-old boy on the M6.

Dev Naran, from Leicestershire, died instantly when the Toyota Yaris car in which he was travelling was pulled up by his grandfather on the southbound hard shoulder near Castle Bromwich in May last year between junctions 6 and 5 and was hit by a goods vehicle.

The coroner warned that other lives could be at risk because Highways Agency staff failed to spot the car despite numerous CCTV cameras.

In her letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph, she explains how that particular section of the M6 can have a hard shoulder open and then later closed to traffic, leading to potential dangers.

“Vehicles stopping in live lanes of a motorway create a serious risk to life due to the speed of the traffic approaching,” she wrote.

It is not known why the boy’s grandfather pulled over as there was no emergency, hazards in the road or mechanical fault with the car. She wrote that despite signs saying the hard shoulder was open to traffic, “there is a real risk that drivers seeing a hard shoulder bordered by solid white lines (and who may have used the road when the hard shoulder is not in use as a live lane) may become confused and forget/fail to register that the hard shoulder is operating as a live lane”.

She added that Highways England had “no system of automatic alert” to spot a lone vehicle. Instead, it often has to rely on calls from the police or public to alert them that a stranded motorist is in peril and the lane needs to be closed.

Meanwhile, Mrs Brown also highlighted how there was a 2.5 mile gap between emergency refuge areas (ERAS) – safe lay-bys – despite the agency earlier promising to make ERAS no more than 1.5 miles apart.

Meera Naran, Dev’s mother, earlier told The Telegraph that more lives could be lost unless there was a national campaign to explain how smart motorways differ from traditional three-lane roads with a hard shoulder.

‘There is a real risk drivers seeing a hard shoulder bordered by solid white lines may become confused’