Technology designed to keep drivers safe on smart motorways frequently stops working, an investigation has found.
There have been hundreds of incidents when safety equipment was out of action in recent years, latest figures show.
AA president Edmund King said these failures are “every driver’s worst nightmare” as he called for hard shoulders to be reinstated on all smart motorways where they have been removed.
National Highways insists evidence shows all types of smart motorways are safer than conventional motorways in terms of deaths or serious injuries, and a series of safety improvements have been made since 2021.
Some 193 miles of all-lane running (ALR) smart motorways – which use the hard shoulder as a permanent live traffic lane – were built in England to increase capacity at a lower cost than widening roads.
There have been long-standing safety concerns after fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes were hit from behind.
Camera and radar systems have been deployed in an attempt to spot stranded vehicles, but figures obtained by Panorama in response to a freedom of information request show there were 397 incidents of power outages on smart motorways between June 2022 and February 2024.
The longest power failure was at Junction 14 on the M4, where there were no signals or sensors for 11 days.
There were 174 power outages in the six months to February 2024 – the most recent period covered by the figures – which is equivalent to nearly one every day.
Mr King said: “We have been exposing the dangers of smart motorways for more than a decade and have made representations to more than a dozen transport secretaries and ministers.
“Four-fifths of our members tell us that they want smart motorways scrapped and the hard shoulder reinstated.
“Now is the time to stop this failed experiment. Efforts have been made to retrofit safety at great expense, but you can never fully correct such a flawed design.
“We…
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