Smart m-way failure 'put lives in danger"

Stricken cars couldn't be spotted or kept safe in outage

DRIVERS OF BROKEN-DOWN cars were like 'sitting ducks' during a software failure that hit large parts of the UK's smart motorway network, according to safety campaigners.

The problems affected the M5, M6, M62 and M60, as well as the M1 north of Northampton.

They caused signals to freeze and deactivated the stopped vehicle detection (SVD) system, which is designed to make sure broken-down vehicles are recovered quickly. These systems are vital on smart motorways because the hard shoulders can be used for traffic, rather than as a relatively safe place to stop.

The deactivation of the SVD system during the 22 February incident meant stopped cars were not detected automatically, so an alert would only be raised if they were spotted on CCTV or by a traffic patrol. Even when they had been seen, the system failure meant it was not possible to protect them by closing lanes using red X symbol displays above the road.