"Smart" Motorway CARNAGE! : Crash causes Police to go off road! 

And getting a clear indication of what to do.

People are only interested in getting further along the queue, not interested in keeping the way clear for the emergency services. ME ME ME ,Attitude!

You could have a million lane motorway, you'll still get everyone sitting in the middle, and leaving to exit until the very last moment.

All the time I’ve used smart motorways, if there’s an X on the lane, Everyone obeys. I’m not sure what caused the patrol car to bring two lanes worth of traffic, but this has nothing to do with smart motorways. This is mismanagement of the smart motorway. Up until that highway patrol, the smart motorway worked perfectly.

No the problem is no hard shoulder simple,, , ive seen loads of smashes on slip roads on to main motorways a single car brakedown causing serious issues,, and the automated speed limit sighns have everyone looked up instead of infront,, just a money 💰 scam and they Don't give a shit of a few die .

Madness baring in mind the No of Police cars already on scene couldn't one of the later cars just tagging on dealt with the drivers that pulled back into the lane behind them

Exactly, that’s because people are stupid, selfish or both. Totally agree that rather than the traffic wombles racing ahead so they can cone off lanes (basically all they’re good for) they should have stuck at the back and directed traffic out of lane one/exit slip. I guess the excitement of deploying their precious cone cargo and seeing a juicy crash was all too much for them.

But what we don't know is whether that lane was x'd off. Perhaps I need to watch the video again?

The silver mini which started to come back alongside the ambulance car was my favourite 👌

OPEFULLY THE CAMERAS GOT ALL THEIR REG NO'S , AND THEY GET FIXED PENALTY NOTICES FOR OBSTRUCTING PASSAGE OF EMERGENCY VEHICLES.

Hi. I'm from Germany. The principle is good, but unfortunately it doesn't work that well thanks to the many egoists who keep making the rescue lane. What urgently needs to come are very harsh penalties, which are also implemented. Unfortunately, threats alone are not enough.

@@MidwayGermany most of the time we can't really complain about how drivers react in highway traffic jams, but one has to admit that Germans absolutely love to complain on a high level

I would say that on two lane Autobahn's (and the Dutch have numerous signs reminding people of this too) then the rules easy to follow and it works well, when you get to three lanes it becomes harder, and on four lane sections, it's just a mess. That said the hard shoulder helps keep a clear emergency lane. I would also point out, that the Germany Driving licence takes considerably longer to gain, and had a separate Autobahn section so German drivers were better prepared, in my opinion. It took many years for the UK to adopted a smaller subset of the German learner driving training on fast roads. It was amazing that in the UK learner drivers (like myself) were prohibited from the Motorway whilst under tuition, but after you passed your test you were allowed to drive on the one section of road you had never driven on. One final point too, anyone in Europe can purchase a car and drive it for quite some time with their original driving licence and on the number plate of the country that they live in. Therefore some of that bad driving by "German" cars may not be the case either.

Absolutely, here in Slovenia, there was (and to some extent still is) a massive movement called Reševalni Pas (rescue lane) which is exactly that and people had these stickers everywhere and there were advertisements on tv. I don't drive at busy times often, but both times I was stuck in

@@hypergolic8468 In the case of Germany and the European Union in general, the rule also applies to motorways with multiple lanes. The "rescue lane" is always to be kept clear between the leftmost lane and all other lanes, regardless of their number. That means that drivers on the leftmost lane pull over to the left, and those on all other lanes to the right.

Agree with you.....thought up by, evidently nobody who has had a total loss of power while overtaking in the outside lane! I have and thank God for the virtually continuous hard shoulder. It's not just tyres and cooling system faults that occur, is it?

Was the lane actually closed though? If they didn't put signs on closing the lane then it isn't really the drivers fault. Also it appears to be a lane dedicated to exiting the motorway so maybe there is no way to close it.

@@gepwxaqdfsidsesg1548 If you actually look, there's a variable message display clearly displaying a red X in the left two lanes and it's highly likely that displays before the incident would also have displayed the same. It is absolutely the fault of the drivers flouting the red X. You say there could've been no way to close it yet you can literally see a closure in place by HETOs? I completely agree with kal that all the drivers seen in these lanes should be issued with fixed penalty notices or traffic offence reports, using the dashcam of the responding police vehicles and HETO vehicles to gather all the necessary information.

@@cg-nz7jf I’m with you on this. It’s so infuriating to see these brainless idiots somehow managing to be allowed to drive after doing things like this. Driving license is something you earn and doing stuff like this just shows how thick a great proportion of UK motorists really are. EMERGENCY VEHICLE GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY

It isn't that simple. With traffic becoming completely static in lanes 3 and 4, the traffic joining at onslips are already in the red X's with no gaps to move into lane 3. Even the flowing traffic approaching BEFORE the red X's then see the X's ahead but there's nowhere to pull into either, as it's all stopped. When the traffic is held, there has to be a complete blockage somewhere because traffic doesn't just disappear. You therefore cannot blanket ticket everybody for being within a red X. Only those who disregard it and fail to move over where there's space should receive the penalties.

@@ultra_vires I hadn’t thought of that. I guess the only solution would be to have extended slip roads and hold traffic there in one lane, or have slip roads for x distance after an entry slip road. To be honest the lack of a Hard shoulder is my only gripe with smart motorways, my experience on them has overall been very positive. Overall though, they were a very badly designed idea. They work for controlling flow of congested traffic and reducing speeding and that’s it.

You think they listen to us

Nah we need smart motorways, they reduce congestion and that’s for everyone’s benefit….

There is a hard shoulder every time they need it. They mark one lane with X, that means YOU CAN NOT ENTER IN THAT LANE. If there are so many stupid drivers they can use the cameras, and revoke their driving licenses.

The same people who ignore a red cross, would drive on the hard shoulder. The problem isn't the concept, it's the idiots that abuse them.

You think they care about your welfare? Let me do my big Skeletor laugh..........BW HA HA..........

This government introduced them. Morons kept voting them in.

The hard shoulder does not get used 99.9% of they time but the hard shoulder was put there for the 1% of the time it is needed,, this could all have gone a lot smoother with a free hard shoulder…. No need for a smart motorway without a hard shoulder, just add more lanes but keep the hard shoulder, add another 10 lanes making the road super wide but keep the hard shoulder free always just in case and that is the smart way to do it lol

@@cjfeather The reason they used the hard shoulder is to save Billions of pounds of Taxpayers money in adding new lanes, If they widened the road they would need to purchase the land on both sides of the road, sometimes taking years to do by compulsory purchase orders if the landowners refused to sell, then all of the Bridges would have to be replaced to accommodate the wider carriageways

@@CDB8939 have you seen how the government uses tax payer money? At this point forget saving money needs must so just do it,,..

Yep, smart motorway is the DUMBEST thing I've ever seen....... I weigh 32,000kgs , if I gotta swerve ( cos at 32 tonne, I cannot stop like a car!!) and I go on grass, game over 🎮!, at speed it will roll, slow speed, will sink!!!! Used to love the hard shoulder at my left side, an option in an emergency..... .. Now I've got mabey 2 foot, and cones, then concrete barrier, or un-stabilised soil, for a chance in the roll-over lotto!!!! So instead of heading for the hard shoulder, from now on I WILL be hitting the vehicle in front!!! , unlucky for me if its a truck 🚚 😥 Unlucky for a car if it puts itself in the way 😥 🚗 👪 😕 ⚰ ⚰ ⚰ ⚰ ⚰

Yeah, especially when all the cost involved and extra danger levels are for absolutely nothing, as most drivers now just sit in the 3rd lane doing 55mph instead of the middle lane, totally nullifying any advantage, and are seemingly just allowed to do so!

@@williambeesley9224 they shouldn't even sit in the middle lane. Kept left unless overtaking

@@tosspot1305 absolutely, that's my point, standard of driving on motorways is atrocious, and unless your doing 5mph over the speed limit the police arnt interested in changing it, probably because most of the culprits didn't even pass their test in this country!

@@williambeesley9224 I second that!

Should be called STUPID motorways!

At least 38 deaths caused by smart motorways, That figure has probably already gone up. Ive had a very lucky escape at night on a section of the M1 with no street lights, it was a dark coloured van that was very hard to see broken down blocking the inside lane, luckily I had nothing coming up the outside of me so I was able to swerve and avoid hitting it. Sadly a lot more people will lose their life because of this insane idea.

There's a reason for the rolling block. Lane 2/part of lane 3 there was a good sized bunch of debris in the lanes. They used the RRB so that they coulf clear that debris without endangering other road users and staff on scene.

@@THEDOGHOUSECUSTOMMOTORCYCLES I believe it's now over 85....

The problem is not smart motorways... it is the very un-smart drivers that we see daily on our roads, especially any kind of motorway... they join then go in to a zombie like state... hogging middle and outside lanes... or they drive tied and play with phones. Dual carriageways have no hard shoulder and 70mph limits... we don't argue that they are dangerous in the way we do smart motorways.

@@neildavies2783 My argument was that, having cleared the debris, surely it would've made more sense to leave it free for responders vehicles rather than use it and deny them access to the crash site. Although I do agree that people seem to have other things on their minds than actually driving their vehicles.

Yep, saw that too. Highways should have force closed one lane, to be used as a blue light lane. Also why no red X closure ?

The red 'x' matrix signs were lit up for the left lane. What grates me is the callous attitudes of those who chose to ignore the signs and break the law. 😐

Geniuses

@@michaelsowerby8198 I think it's a case of them thinking they know better. They saw the signs, then saw the vehicle in the refuge area, and moronically assume that MUST be the incident, so they could ignore the signs now. Utter stupidity. I've seen a video where the driver was annoyed that the signs still closed the left lane after, as far as he was concerned, he'd gone past the incident. In reality he had no idea whether there had been another incident ahead.

Dont know why they had to be at the incident and I have often wondered why so many Police cars need to be there too. Surely HA could be better used to keep the lane clear

A jumping red X is a nine point offence now in 2022, with new Traffic Regs 2022, with upto £2700 fine. Motorways do have these lane fine cameras, been told the M25 has a lot of them. New in 2022, normal simple cctv type cameras, since 2020 to 2021 trials now can do speeding, lane hogging, ANPR, tailgating. UK Gov in Feb 2022 gave Gatso UK (Serco) to start making them non trial live, to start fines. This means a speed camera will now also do other areas not just speeding. Also it does not have to be in a yellow box. It can just be a normal black / white cctv camera that you see on a simple lamp post / pole. They use AI for calibration, so no line marmings on road is needed. Also Council's can start using the new software to turn town centre cctv cameras, into all these new fines listed above, and Council can apply to Central Government to start issuing themselves speeding fines, lane hogging, tailgating, red x. So it does not just have to be the police. Also 2025, Ford started with new cars in UK and EU April 2022 .... ECU's are fitted with some new software and mobile access to report you for speeding. From 2025 - cars (your car or van) are to report you for speeding, insurance & licence & MOT etc, rec.drugs and alc.

Making motorways wider to take more vehicles was never needed and won't be needed, the reason being that the three lanes we had are never used correctly. If we look what is happening we will see that a high percentage of the lanes are actually not being used. Need more traffic police out there constantly pulling bad driving habits and large fines which would pay for more patrols to stop bad drivers. Ignore the moaners, let's have some actual enforcement out there and rid this ferral driver attitude.

I got stuck on the M2 completely shut just after a junction. I was at the front. The police officer was sorting out the mess on his own! It was early Sunday morning. I saw in my mirror a load of cars coming down the hard shoulder to sneak up to the junction. The copper saw them went over stopped the first car. Then got on the radio and walked up the row of cars shouting the reg numbers over the radio so they would get a ticket in the post! He held them there for a while and released the other lanes. A rare case of thinking by the copper and I did feel sorry for him as he was on his own dealing with an accident and then knob heads appear. I think he got his quoter of tickets.

I've seen people try to jump queues and end up blocking the hard shoulder. They need to fine every single driver breaking the law by using a lane with a red X. They will learn eventually.

@@mark1trucker Since they changed the M1 near me to 4 lanes and made it all lane running, I find that 3 lanes are taken up by LGV's overtaking each other at 56mph and the outside lane being used by everyone else. It took over 10 miles to get by a group of LGV's the other week just using the outside lane.

That would involve patient drivers willing to put others forts sadly something lacking in the UK

They drive like morons in Germany, alot more accidents on their motorway

yes I'm sure there's never been a situation like this in either france nor germany

Yes, create a space here and a selfish sod will fill it.

Oui en France la "BAU" bande arrêt urgence doit rester libre pour les secours et personnes n'oserait dépasser par la BAU. Merci pour la vidéo 🇫🇷

Lane 1 is emergency lane when needed as they can close it with the signs

@@cameronbrown4616 Often not quick enough to prevent an accident. There is ALWAYS some delay actuating it and you have vehicles that pass gantries before they are actuated. The system was always flawed and that's why they aren't doing any more. They have proved to be fatal.

@@cameronbrown4616 if you breakdown and have to stop in lane one, you’d then have to ring someone for the lane to be closed whilst you had traffic behind you doing at least 50mph who would then likely have to swerve into the faster lanes. Closing them takes too long, a hard shoulder is 10000000x safer

I can guarantee you hard shoulders don’t save lives. They are actually one of the most dangerous places on a motorway. People misuse them all of the time and there have been a number of incidents in the past year where people have been killed on then

@@RozzerMildred97 so lets say that the hard shoulder is being used as a live lane , your car brakes down and you have nowhere to pull over because the hard shoulder is being used as a live lane , it could take minutes before the lane is cleared of traffic because its not picked up by the cameras straight away , in that time your vehicle could be wiped out by a 44ton truck from romania , sounds like a safe lane now i bet

bloke in charge get 500 thousand a year,,been an idiot does pay,its all corruption,

So what would have happened if there were still a hard shoulder, just answer the question please.

@@dontuno The dumb & selfish drivers would have used it to get ahead of the rest of the traffic, I've witnessed it myself.!!

@@dontuno Its as simple as that. the overwhelming majority of drivers would never use the hard shoulder vs a significant proportion of drivers that would use what otherwise looks like two open and useable lanes. smart motorways are profoundly dumb and need to be removed.

@@NitroNuggetTV Precisely! Whoever dreamt up or advocated that "Smart" motorways were a sensible solution to a perceived problem should be held accountable for their consequences. I get really annoyed by the self-righteous who start calling drivers dumb when in reality had the hard shoulder still been there the conversation wouldn't even have got started!

@@vangard6562 Sorry but I have travelled up and down all the UK motorways over the last 40 plus years, and frankly you are talking rubbish! The vast majority of drivers recognised that a hard shoulder was a no-go area and knew it was there for safety reasons.

There was always accidents on the slip for the m25 before smart motorways, I can only imagine the carnage now the hard shoulder is gone

Anything with the name smart is dangerous, as witness smart motorways, smart meters etc.

I live at the wales part of the M4, and there’s already works going on for the “smart” motorways. This is utterly dangerous when the hard shoulder is gone.

@@Comet-RealThere’s no Smart Motorways in Wales.

this is because smart is stupid u can see

Since Feb 2022, Traffic Regs 2022 update, its now nine points and upto £2700 fine.

Yup Lane 1 & 2 Red X on the video

@@EdgeOfInsanityOffical Then the cameras need high power lasers aimed at their tyres.

@@pqrstzxerty1296 Its 3 points and £100 fine now unless it goes to court then its higher penalties

The people turning on and off the signs are worse than useless , there would be wrongful fines flying everywhere

You're assuming there was one, it takes them ages to press the button to close the lane, I know, I've been sat roadside waiting for it to happen before, they've probably just done it now.

@@steve5772 same as

@@Felix-rising There’d have to be photographic evidence. An easy thing to do but as we all know, the operators of these signs are less than reactive and not very bright. I’ve driven under consecutive gantry’s that had, 70-40-🚫-70-40-🚫 They probably caused the incident in the first place. I hope no one was seriously injured wrt this video 😔

@@BionicRusty yes but the weak link would be the cameras and speed signs being synchronised

The motorway isn’t the problem as it doesn’t move or interfere with traffic, but it’s down drivers competency, common sense and compliance to drive according to road / traffic conditions. Even where there is a hard shoulder, vehicles will use it as they are too impatient to wait in traffic. Remember when the variable speed limits were introduced? Many drivers said it wouldn’t work, but it has as traffic flows better at a lower speed, as opposed to the start/stop routine that it replaced. I for one, dislike Smart motorways but only for the fact that too many drivers are not smart enough to adhere to how they work.

that's why more and more countries swtich to emergency corridors instead ...

Yep, M3 M4 M1 M25 M1, last week, I must have swerved from lane zero (open smart lane) to lane 1, over 14 times due to parked brokendown vehicles, with no red X showing on overhead signs. Even Google maps was getting fedup with me marking them.... giving me a waiting time to report the next one. I also notice people just won't use the lane zero when open, even HGV's as they may have to return to lane 1 ( directed in and out like on M1, or by swearving and no pre red X displayed ). Smart motorways that allow the use of lane zero for general use is never going to work.

@@pqrstzxerty1296 "Smart motorways that allow the use of lane zero for general use is never going to work. " why does it work in places outside the UK, but not in the UK? In my area we have a section like that as well and it works very well ...

Too far out-of the box for these idiots to grasp that master plan 😂😂

That sounds dangerously like common sense!

The fire service would only approach against the flow of traffic (even if stopped) with a police escort tying up even more resources.

Emergency Services generally do NOT use that format. A Traffic Officer friend of mine said a few years ago to do that could mean having to deploy additional police officers to close off any potential Slip Roads or Junction connections to traffic wishing to access the carriageway, when additional manpower may not be necessarily available in what can be a time critical period. Instead, it's safer to have Emergency Service vehicles approach the accident scene from behind and through the traffic backlog, even if it does mean taking a bit longer to reach the scene.

@@iainjones5002 From the Fire Service perspective. We alway have a dual approach on Motorways and Duel Carriageways, appliances will attend the location on both carriageways North/South or East/West. Then the appliances on the non incident side will continue to the next junction and return on the incident side, unless there has been an encroachment of the central barrier. With the smart motorways the HA will know exactly where it is and what is happening from the cameras and will set a Red X to close one lane to make an access corridor for any emergency vehicles.The problem is the tailback from a complete blockage forms very quickly and lanes may already be blocked with vehicles before the red x was set. There is a way of approaching by travelling the wrong way on a carriageway but the criteria for that is horrendous, I have never done it in over 30 years of service.

Why would they do this if it endangers life govt ??

@@cheriecollins3848 Because it is cheaper than widening the motorways. It's as simple as that. Government doesn't give a fig for public safety. Cost cutting is the only thing that matters. In many respects we, the public are also to blame as the money has to comes from somewhere but the public doesn't want to pay it. You can't have your cake AND eat it!

@@Biffo1262 Duty of care and Health and safety,also public servants to us,most have walked out past couple of days now Boris.Public deserve better,no hard shoulder endangers life,they have plenty of money in pot as we have all seen..

Could do with automatic cameras to enforce it, would stop people for sure from driving in such lanes

Highways cars could force vehicle's over and keep the lanes clear instead of racing to the scene to put some cones out. I wonder how many drivers etc. have to die before something is done about having the hard shoulder back, or a training campaign for drivers to leave a lane clear or pull to the side as in Germany. The BBC would be very handy for this champagne The police should also set up sting operations with mock accidents filmed and shown on TV etc. To shame motorist's as well as fining them. This would be a cash cow with some purpose. I do hate ambulance chasers.

So you think a smart motorway isn't a problem. You need to explain that to the families of people killed using them .

@@trytellingthetruth.2068 while smart motorways do cause some of the issues, as shown here, drivers can also be the cause. Even if it wasn't a smart motorway, people still decide to bypass traffic with the hard shoulder which, yet again, causes the same problems.

Problem with this is drivers are not patient and Cameras are bright yellow and everyone knows where they are. Stop warning drivers so they can avoid then and just put cameras on every single gantry. Tailgating. Excessive speed and ignoring lane warning can all raise funds

This section of the M4 from Reading to the M25 is "all lane running" to increase capacity.

I think it pretty clear the two left lanes were closed throughout this video. people behaving good at the start but then all the idiots just started to ignore signs. Cops should have booked them all.

@@firstman9273 Do the cops physically need to book them on a Smart Motorway. Don’t cameras do that automatically ?

@@davecooper3238 There's only a few places on all the smart motorways in the country where tickets are issued automatically. Its still all a very manual process. Even turning on the speed limit signs is manually done. The system will tell an operator the traffic rate and advise speeds, to which the operator changes the speed recommended by the system. I think there's a bit of smart motorway on the m4 near Bristol where its mostly automatic, but I don't know which part as the road can often be empty for miles at night and the limit is still set to 50

@@ShuskiCross Don’t the cameras react to the changed speed limit & lane closed when active. Part of the M4 in South Wales is more or less permanently 50mph. The signs say it’s to cut pollution.

You beat me too it. Great illustrations of this from the Germans if you look up "rettungsgasse". Same concept in Holland.

Seem multiple people suggesting this. That’s engraned in drivers heads. Here we used to have the hard shoulder…now we don’t. What have people been taught to do instead?

They have video footage of then (not the smartphone) so they can easily charge them. Then put it in the papers and TV so others learn

take a guess why some other countries go for the concept of the emergency corridor instead of hard shoulders ...

They were sold on a lie. There is no automated lane closures on most the network. No radar. A lot of broken cctv

Not helped by car drivers not thinking that having moved out of the way for one emergency vehicle that others may be coming too.

That works because they have hard shoulders, so space to move over.

There is....its called a red x. The traffic was ignoring it. Let's hope plenty of fines and points end up through their letter boxes in the next few days

@@Dosedmonkey it works without hard shoulders as well. Many sections of the German motorway network have no hard shoulders at all ... e.g. in tunnels, some bridges, many urban areas, steep inclines at mountains, old sections and those where the existing hard shoulder is temporarily free to use as driving lane and thus leaving no hard shoulder as emergency or breakdown lane

@@AB-cs7vm I agree, thed ignored the closed lanes; Luckily it doesn't take any lane closures that far ahead of the actual incident scene with the emergency corridor

There should always be a hard shoulder available. Removing it is nothing short of incompetence and the authorities should be sued when people are injured as a result

or.... the fact that someone actually repurposed the hard shoulder to be a live lane, gave all drivers ridiculous amounts of signage and notice about how to use those lanes, only for lots of those irresponsible idiots to ignore both the rules and common sense to hinder the emergency services. Probably the same set of idiots who don't know that the left lane is for driving; all other lanes are for passing/overtaking, unless otherwise indicated. ( fwiw these rules do apply to Audis ,Bmws, Mercedes and Teslas)

@@j.wellens5660 OK. I can give you that. But it's all about saving money over safety. And if they are so good, why don't we do away with hard shoulders altogether?. I've an audi and a scooter. And the roads are full of entitled fools. I agree. Nearly got the pine box last week. Luckily l ride and trust no one.

What you on about? That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.

I work in Retail. Not just selfish, narcissistic and entitled pretty much covers it. Not to mention when they wipe bogies on our clothes. You don't even want to know what they get up to in the fitting rooms. 🙄

@@BigBirdCEO What the hell do they get up to in the fitting rooms? Farming for Ass boogers?!

There's always a delay from when a red X is displayed to people actually moving over - could be minutes before those already in lane 1 are even aware of the red X till after the gantry that shows it

@@nekotranslates Good point, many timed I have gone just that monent going under a gantry display sign and it changed, speeding reduced, or lane closure X. Did I see it did I not, will the gantry cameras apply. I think the gantry camera have a delay in the time to apply. Luckly I have gps dash cam to prove this if I ever get a FPN ticket.

It's not because of smart motorways, but because emergency vehicles in the UK using the hard shoulder to get through .... take a guess why other countries have figured out that it's better to use an emergency corridor in between the driving lanes.

If it’s a smart motorway why hadn’t the left hand lane been closed to non emergency traffic ?

Do you think that these stupid drivers won't use the hard shoulder to earn 100m? I am not sure it won't happen. I saw that thing a lot of times.

@@chrishar110 Even if you had people use the hard shoulder, it would only be 1 or 2, not a whole bunch of people including truckers using it

There's everything wrong with SMART Motorways. They don't work, the system isn't reliable enough. There's plenty of documentaries about them. They are fatally flawed and the flaws have nothing to do with the drivers.

Margaret Thatcher's government, if I recall

yes, blocking the through traffic is the actual cause of the problem. When the through traffic keeps moving a little, people patiently creep forward. when it comes to a complete halt later, people try the closed lanes to see if there is a way out of it.