Revealed: Paint used in smart motorway laybys poses skidding risk

EXCLUSIVE Revealed: Bungling road chiefs put drivers at greater risk on smart motorways because orange paint used in laybys is a skidding risk

• Orange coating made the tarmac more slippery, particularly when wet
• Paint was removed from 22 opened refuge areas and 28 under construction 

Bungling road chiefs put drivers at greater risk on smart motorways because orange paint used in emergency refuge areas was a skidding hazard, it can be revealed.

Some 50 of the refuge areas had to have their orange coating removed because it made the tarmac more slippery, particularly when wet.

It adds to existing safety fears over the controversial roads, with separate reports suggesting that technology used to detect stricken motorists is failing to work properly.

The alarm was raised regarding the orange paint by traffic officers who warned it could cause vehicles pulling into laybys to crash into other vehicles or passengers standing by their cars.

An investigation was launched by then transport secretary Grant Shapps in February last year after the fears were reported by the Mail.

Bungling road chiefs put drivers at greater risk on smart motorways because orange paint used in emergency refuge areas was a skidding hazard, it can be revealed

The alarm was raised regarding the orange paint by traffic officers who warned it could cause vehicles pulling into laybys to crash into other vehicles or passengers standing by their cars. An investigation was launched by then transport secretary Grant Shapps (pictured last week) in February last year after the fears were reported by the Mail

It can now be revealed that orange coating was removed from 22 already-opened refuge areas and 28 under construction across multiple smart motorway stretches. There are around 427 refuges either already open or under construction, meaning more than 10 per cent were affected.

Sources said the work was completed in December by National Highways, which is responsible for the roads. It said no accidents were reported as a result of the paintwork.

However, according to internal documents, a terrifying ‘near miss’ on the M6 near junction 16 was attributed to a slippery refuge.

Traffic officers reported that it had the ‘potential to reoccur’ as it appeared to be ‘a design fault’ and was likely to be a ‘wider problem’ affecting multiple emergency laybys.

The laybys are a crucial safety feature for smart motorways – where the hard shoulder is a live traffic lane – as they are the only place motorists can go to prevent being marooned in traffic.

The Mail has long-campaigned for greater safety on smart motorways.

A National Highways spokesman said: ‘Emergency areas remain one of the safest places to stop if you get into difficulty and it’s not possible to leave the carriageway or reach a motorway service area.

‘After launching an investigation, we successfully treated the small number of affected emergency areas. No accidents were reported on these areas and all now meet our rigorous standards.’

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