Smart Motorways

[Hymie]

(wherever the term ‘smart motorway’ is used - read ‘very dangerous motorway, where if you breakdown and remain in your vehicle, there is a high probability you will die’)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9160075/Lorry-driver-tells-inquest-avoided-killing-two-hard-shoulder.html

This story interested me for a number of reasons.
One being the HGV driver who was jailed as a result of the accident – had he had better legal representation, I don’t think he would be in jail.

Consider yourself driving an HGV on the inside lane on a rainy night on an unlit stretch of a smart motorway at 60mph. Ahead of you, just around a curve, is a broken-down vehicle (with no lights – it’s broken-down). You have to see the vehicle and react – your braking distance may not stop you in time, and with vehicles in the lane to your right, you would have no opportunity to avoid a crash.

If the government renamed smart motorways (as outlined above), more people would be aware of the dangers they face should they breakdown on one.

[saintpeter48]

There is nothing smart about them, some bloke had nothing better to do one day and he's come up with this!
Madness, utter madness, any one of us could end up in lanes one, two or three with a puncture, or car engine dies, with a car full of family, where do we go?
This death trap of an idea should be scrapped NOW!

[joeski53]

Terrible idea, they are supposed to close that lane if you breakdown further back so it gives smart lane users a chance to move into the next lane, but of course given the accidents we read about and deaths its a given it isnt working like that. You couldnt risk staying in your car could you at any time of day, particularly with family/friends/anybody else in the car, it would be too risky. Terrible idea.

[jourdain2]

This idea needs to be scrapped a.s.a.p..