Warning of new danger on smart motorways that could cause drivers to skid into deadly crashes

ORANGE paint in emergency refuge areas could be a dangerous skidding hazard on smart motorways, leaked documents reveal. The paint makes tarmac slippery, especially when it is wet, meaning vehicles pulling into laybys could crash into stopped vehicles or people standing by their car, National Highways documents show. Traffic officers blamed a near-miss on the […]

ORANGE paint in emergency refuge areas could be a dangerous skidding hazard on smart motorways, leaked documents reveal.

The paint makes tarmac slippery, especially when it is wet, meaning vehicles pulling into laybys could crash into stopped vehicles or people standing by their car, National Highways documents show.

PA

Traffic officers blamed a near-miss on the M6 near junction 16 on a design fault, warning it had the potential to reoccur, MailOnline reported.

An internal email called it “a high potential incident with high severity rating e.g. if a member of public had been stood to the rear nearside of their vehicle”.

Another said: “Given there may be a wider problem with other such [refuge areas] using this orange paint, can this be investigated and a solution found?”

AA President Edmund King called the findings a serious concern. 

Nicholas Lyes, the RAC’s roads policy chief, added: “Given these refuge areas are short in length and vehicles will be exiting onto a high-speed road, adequate grip is essential to avoid serious collisions when re-joining the motorway, particularly in wet conditions.”

National Highways launched an investigation and insisted only a small number of laybys were potentially affected.

The 300 refuges in the smart motorway network began getting painted in 2017 to make them visible.

Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder, said a safety feature has made roads more dangerous.

She added: “It is ridiculous and has reduced me to tears thinking about it.

“There’s no replacement for a permanent hard shoulder.”