No hard shoulder on smart motorways leading to unsafe stops
National Highways received 7 coroners' reports about this hazard between 14 Oct 2019 and 17 Feb 2025.
They came from 7 different coroners in 6 coroner areas. A similar concern was raised again 6 times after the first warning.
A published response was found for 6 of the 6 earlier reports, stating 4 specific actions.
The story, report by report
Spacing grows with the time between reports.
“there is a 2.5 mile gap in the emergency refuge areas at this point; b) this section of the M6 is elevated and as such there is no land along the edge of the motorway to which occupants”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ National Highways responded, stating 1 specific action.Response (PDF) ↗
“The coroner concluded that there was no evidence of a fault with the vehicle, iliness of the driver, or a hazard in the road which caused the driver to stop in a clearly marked live running lane on a high-speed road. The reason the driver stopped on the M6 motorway was not established "as part of the coronial process.”
Web search (Tavily): No evidence found either way
Smart motorways stocktake ↗- 1 month later
“the stretch of motorway in question was raised with a significant drop next to the hard shoulder”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ National Highways responded, stating 1 specific action.Response (PDF) ↗
“assist. We will be repeating our information campaigns on using motorways in four waves between early 2020 and March 2021. These will be focused on 'what to do in a breakdown', Red X, keeping left and variable speed limits.”
Stated timescale: early 2020 to March 2021
Web search (Tavily): No evidence found either way
National Roadway Safety Strategy 2026 ↗ - 1 year 2 months later
Raised again · 2nd time
Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer↗
19 Jan 2021 · David Urpeth · South Yorkshire West
“- The obvious and foreseeable risk posed by the absence of a hard shoulder on”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ National Highways responded, stating 1 specific action.Response (PDF) ↗Response (PDF) ↗
“Highways England will publish this report shortly”
Stated timescale: shortly
Web search (Tavily): Evidence found that the action was carried out
Smart motorways stocktake ↗ - 1 month laterClosely relatedConfidence 0.86 · higha different coroner
“absence of a hard shoulder contributed to the collision. Had the [deceased's] vehicle been able to stop in a location other that a live lane”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Repeated from the earlier report:hardshoulder
National Highways responded.Response (PDF) ↗
- 1 year 1 month laterIdentical hazardConfidence 0.92 · higha different coroner
“the collision would not have occurred if the broken down Land Rover had been able to pull out of the running lane into a refuge or onto a traditional hard shoulder”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Repeated from the earlier report:collisionablelanehardshoulder
National Highways responded, stating 1 specific action.Response (PDF) ↗
“by the end of September 2022 SVD will be in place on every operational all lane running smart motorway”
Stated timescale: by the end of September 2022
Web search (Tavily): No evidence found either way
Fourth annual assessment of safety performance on the ... ↗ - 1 year 1 month laterIdentical hazardConfidence 0.95 · higha different coroner
“THERE WAS NOWHERE FOR THE DRIVER OF THE FIRST VEHICLE TO PARK SAFELY”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ National Highways responded.Response (PDF) ↗
- 1 year 10 months laterClosely relatedConfidence 0.90 · higha different coroner
“It was accepted at inquest that Mr [name redacted] was on an all lanes open motorway. This type of motorway has all lanes open for vehicles to use, and areas for vehicles to stop every 1.6 miles, but not areas in between.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ National Highways responded.Response (PDF) ↗
- All reports to National Highways
Each row is one judged link between an earlier and a later report. Open a row to read both quotes, found word for word in the originals.
2019 → 2021Zahid Ahmed1 year 4 months after Jamil Ahmed · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.86 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.86 · highBoth reports highlight problems with the hard shoulder that prevent drivers from safely stopping in emergencies. The earlier report notes a raised section creating a drop beside the hard shoulder, while the later report notes a complete absence of a hard shoulder.
Jamil Ahmed · 15 Nov 2019
“the stretch of motorway in question was raised with a significant drop next to the hard shoulder”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Zahid Ahmed · 3 Mar 2021
“absence of a hard shoulder contributed to the collision. Had the [deceased's] vehicle been able to stop in a location other that a live lane”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“assist. We will be repeating our information campaigns on using motorways in four waves between early 2020 and March 2021. These will be focused on 'what to do in a breakdown', Red X, keeping left and variable speed limits.”
2019 → 2021Zahid Ahmed1 year 5 months after Dev Naran · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.85 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.85 · highBoth reports highlight that insufficient provision of a hard shoulder or refuge area increases the danger when vehicles stop in a live lane on a smart motorway. The earlier report points to a gap in emergency refuge areas and limited verge width, while the later report notes a complete absence of a hard shoulder on an All Lanes Running segment.
Dev Naran · 14 Oct 2019
“there is a 2.5 mile gap in the emergency refuge areas at this point; b) this section of the M6 is elevated and as such there is no land along the edge of the motorway”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Zahid Ahmed · 3 Mar 2021
“absence of a hard shoulder contributed to the collision. Had the [deceased's] vehicle been able to stop in a location other that a live lane, the offending HGV would not have driven into the back of it”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“The coroner concluded that there was no evidence of a fault with the vehicle, iliness of the driver, or a hazard in the road which caused the driver to stop in a clearly marked live running lane on a high-speed road. The reason the driver stopped on the M6 motorway was not established "as part of the coronial process.”
2021 → 2022Zoltan Torok1 year 1 month after Zahid Ahmed · different coronerIdentical hazardConfidence 0.92 · high
Identical hazardConfidence 0.92 · highBoth reports identify the lack of a hard shoulder or refuge area as a factor that prevented vehicles from leaving the live lane, contributing to rear‑end collisions.
Zahid Ahmed · 3 Mar 2021
“absence of a hard shoulder contributed to the collision. Had the [deceased's] vehicle been able to stop in a location other that a live lane”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Zoltan Torok · 21 Mar 2022
“the collision would not have occurred if the broken down Land Rover had been able to pull out of the running lane into a refuge or onto a traditional hard shoulder”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ 2021 → 2022Zoltan Torok1 year 2 months after Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · highBoth reports highlight dangers arising from the lack or ineffective use of a hard shoulder on motorways. They differ in focus: the earlier cites the absence of a hard shoulder on smart motorways, while the later warns that mixing smart and traditional designs leads drivers to misuse lanes.
Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer · 19 Jan 2021
“- The obvious and foreseeable risk posed by the absence of a hard shoulder on smart motorways;”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Zoltan Torok · 21 Mar 2022
“the policy of mixing smart motorways with traditional hard shoulder motorways created a latent risk that road users will become accustomed to treating the left or inner lane of motorways as a live running lane”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“Highways England will publish this report shortly”
2019 → 2022Zoltan Torok2 years 4 months after Jamil Ahmed · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.85 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.85 · highBoth reports highlight the danger posed when motorists cannot reach a safe refuge because the hard shoulder is absent or being used as a running lane. They share the concern that a stationary vehicle in a live lane creates a high‑risk situation for following traffic.
Jamil Ahmed · 15 Nov 2019
“when a hard shoulder is used as a running lane. Whilst any vehicle may break down on any road, in relation to motorways:”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Zoltan Torok · 21 Mar 2022
“(1) On the date of the death the particular section of the M4 motorway was not completed as a smart motorway, but was substantially in course of conversion such that to all intents and purposes it had the intended characteristics of a smart motorway”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“assist. We will be repeating our information campaigns on using motorways in four waves between early 2020 and March 2021. These will be focused on 'what to do in a breakdown', Red X, keeping left and variable speed limits.”
2019 → 2022Zoltan Torok2 years 5 months after Dev Naran · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.80 · moderate
Closely relatedConfidence 0.80 · moderateBoth reports highlight the danger posed when a motorway running lane becomes unexpectedly obstructed, leaving drivers with little time or space to react.
Dev Naran · 14 Oct 2019
“Vehicles stopping in live lanes of a motorway create a risk to life due to the speed of the traffic approaching, the difficulty approaching drivers will have in identifying that a vehicle in the lane ahead of them is stationary”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Zoltan Torok · 21 Mar 2022
“The essential purpose of a motorway as a multi-lane high speed direct communication between locations likely to be long distances apart is both undermined, and has a tendency to potentiate risks to road users, if the running lanes are liable suddenly and unexpectedly to become blocked in a dynamic situation, with no refuge available to the stranded vehicle.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ 2021 → 2023David Levett2 years 3 months after Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer · different coronerIdentical hazardConfidence 0.95 · high
Identical hazardConfidence 0.95 · highBoth reports highlight the danger of having nowhere safe to stop because smart motorways lack a hard shoulder.
Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer · 19 Jan 2021
“- The obvious and foreseeable risk posed by the absence of a hard shoulder on”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ David Levett · 18 Apr 2023
“THERE WAS NOWHERE FOR THE DRIVER OF THE FIRST VEHICLE TO PARK SAFELY”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“Highways England will publish this report shortly”
2021 → 2023David Levett2 years 1 month after Zahid Ahmed · different coronerIdentical hazardConfidence 0.92 · high
Identical hazardConfidence 0.92 · highBoth reports identify the lack of a hard shoulder as creating a situation where vehicles cannot stop safely outside live lanes.
Zahid Ahmed · 3 Mar 2021
“absence of a hard shoulder contributed to the collision. Had the [deceased's] vehicle been able to stop in a location other that a live lane, the offending HGV would not have driven into the back of it”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ David Levett · 18 Apr 2023
“THERE WAS NOWHERE FOR THE DRIVER OF THE FIRST VEHICLE TO PARK SAFELY e.g.. ON A HARD SHOULDER.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ 2022 → 2023David Levett1 year 1 month after Zoltan Torok · different coronerIdentical hazardConfidence 0.90 · high
Identical hazardConfidence 0.90 · highBoth reports highlight the absence of a safe stopping area such as a hard shoulder or refuge on an all‑lane‑running smart motorway. They describe the same hazard: vehicles breaking down have nowhere to pull out of the running lane.
Zoltan Torok · 21 Mar 2022
“there was no run-off lane or safety lane or hard shoulder, but all lanes were running lanes.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ David Levett · 18 Apr 2023
“THERE WAS NOWHERE FOR THE DRIVER OF THE FIRST VEHICLE TO PARK SAFELY e.g.. ON A HARD SHOULDER.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ 2019 → 2023David Levett3 years 6 months after Dev Naran · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · highBoth reports highlight the absence of adequate safe stopping areas on motorways, leaving drivers unable to pull over without endangering themselves.
Dev Naran · 14 Oct 2019
“Vehicles stopping in live lanes of a motorway create a risk to life due to the speed of the traffic approaching, the difficulty approaching drivers will have in identifying that a vehicle in the lane ahead of them is stationary and the fact that the volume of traffic around any stopped vehicle can inhibit the ability of a driver to take evasive action without coming into contact with other road users.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ David Levett · 18 Apr 2023
“THERE WAS NOWHERE FOR THE DRIVER OF THE FIRST VEHICLE TO PARK SAFELY”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ 2021 → 2025Kevin O'Reilly4 years after Zahid Ahmed · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · highBoth reports highlight the lack of a safe place for vehicles to stop on smart motorways where the hard shoulder is unavailable or not provided. They differ in the specific road configuration described (managed motorway with variable hard shoulder versus all‑lanes‑open motorway with refuge spacing).
Zahid Ahmed · 3 Mar 2021
“absence of a hard shoulder contributed to the collision. Had the [deceased's] vehicle been able to stop in a location other that a live lane, the offending HGV would not have driven into the back of it”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Kevin O'Reilly · 17 Feb 2025
“It was accepted at inquest that Mr [name redacted] was on an all lanes open motorway. This type of motorway has all lanes open for vehicles to use, and areas for vehicles to stop every 1.6 miles, but not areas in between.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ 2019 → 2025Kevin O'Reilly5 years 4 months after Dev Naran · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · highBoth reports highlight the danger of vehicles stopping in a live lane due to insufficient emergency refuge areas along the motorway. They differ in the specific scheme (dynamic hard shoulder vs all‑lanes open) and the exact spacing of refuge areas.
Dev Naran · 14 Oct 2019
“there is a 2.5 mile gap in the emergency refuge areas at this point; b) this section of the M6 is elevated and as such there is no land along the edge of the motorway to which occupants”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Kevin O'Reilly · 17 Feb 2025
“It was accepted that there was no area for vehicles to stop should they need to, unless they were near to the refuse areas spaced 1.6 miles apart, and the all lanes open motorways were not monitored.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“The coroner concluded that there was no evidence of a fault with the vehicle, iliness of the driver, or a hazard in the road which caused the driver to stop in a clearly marked live running lane on a high-speed road. The reason the driver stopped on the M6 motorway was not established "as part of the coronial process.”
2023 → 2025Kevin O'Reilly1 year 10 months after David Levett · different coronerIdentical hazardConfidence 0.90 · high
Identical hazardConfidence 0.90 · highBoth reports highlight the absence of safe stopping places on all‑lane running/smart motorways, leaving drivers with nowhere to pull over when needed.
David Levett · 18 Apr 2023
“THERE WAS NOWHERE FOR THE DRIVER OF THE FIRST VEHICLE TO PARK SAFELY”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Kevin O'Reilly · 17 Feb 2025
“It was accepted at inquest that Mr [name redacted] was on an all lanes open motorway. This type of motorway has all lanes open for vehicles to use, and areas for vehicles to stop every 1.6 miles, but not areas in between”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ 2021 → 2025Kevin O'Reilly4 years 1 month after Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer · different coronerClosely relatedConfidence 0.80 · moderate
Closely relatedConfidence 0.80 · moderateBoth reports highlight the lack of adequate stopping places for vehicles on motorways without a hard shoulder or continuous refuge areas.
Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer · 19 Jan 2021
“- The obvious and foreseeable risk posed by the absence of a hard shoulder on”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Kevin O'Reilly · 17 Feb 2025
“i) It was accepted at inquest that Mr [name redacted] was on an all lanes open motorway. This type of motorway has all lanes open for vehicles to use, and areas for vehicles to stop every 1.6 miles, but not areas in between.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“Highways England will publish this report shortly”
Stated action
“The coroner concluded that there was no evidence of a fault with the vehicle, iliness of the driver, or a hazard in the road which caused the driver to stop in a clearly marked live running lane on a high-speed road. The reason the driver stopped on the M6 motorway was not established "as part of the coronial process.”
What happened next: No evidence found either way
National Highways has not provided a specific timeframe for addressing the issue.
“Our ambition is that no-one should be harmed while travelling or working on our roads, which means that safety continues to be our number one priority.”
“National Highways said it was "urgently investigating" the problem.”
“How we support people travelling as pedestrians, by bike or by horse.”
No evidence found does not mean the action did not happen.
Stated action · timescale: early 2020 to March 2021
“assist. We will be repeating our information campaigns on using motorways in four waves between early 2020 and March 2021. These will be focused on 'what to do in a breakdown', Red X, keeping left and variable speed limits.”
What happened next: No evidence found either way
National Highways maintains a comprehensive safety strategy and provides guidance on safe driving practices, including variable speed limits and breakdown procedures, but no source confirms specific information campaigns on motorway use were conducted between early 2020 and March 2021.
“The NRSS outlines three core objectives-Safer People, Safer Roads, and Safer Vehicles-and emphasizes DOT's commitment to drive fatalities toward zero. We will achieve this by ensuring that truck drivers are appropriately licensed and qualified, designing roads that keep us both safe a”
“We set and manage variable speed limits (VSL) to look after your safety and to improve traffic flow on our roads.  Government and industry research has shown that the use of excessive speed on our motorways is common.”
“We set variable speed limits to look after your safety and to improve traffic flow on motorways and major A roads. Average speed enforcement cameras around roadworks How we use cameras to detect vehicles exceeding the speed limit when an 'Average speed check' is in place.”
No evidence found does not mean the action did not happen.
Stated action · timescale: shortly
“Highways England will publish this report shortly”
What happened next: Evidence found that the action was carried out
National Highways confirmed delivery of the stocktake report and its findings on smart motorway safety.
“Smart motorways stocktake Fourth year progress report: December 2024 Contents 03 Foreword 05 Executive summary 10 Smart motorway features 12 Stocktake action summary 19 Updated safety evidence 50 Conclusion 51 Annex A - Smart motorways map 52 Annex B - Methodology 93 Annex C - Detailed tables 94 Annex D - Detailed collision data 95 Annex E - Before versus after- Detailed tables Contents 96 Annex F”
“National Highways publish Smart Motorways Stocktake - Third Year Progress Report In the third progress report since the 2020 Action Plan, National Highways confirm it has now delivered on all actions planned to be completed to date, and provided evidence that, in most cases, smart motorways are safer than the roads they replaced.”
No specific action could be extracted with a verified quote.
No specific action could be extracted with a verified quote.
Stated action · timescale: by the end of September 2022
“by the end of September 2022 SVD will be in place on every operational all lane running smart motorway”
What happened next: No evidence found either way
National Highways has not confirmed completion of stopped vehicle detection upgrades by the end of September 2022.
“Fourth annual assessment of safety performance on the strategic road network 19 March 2026 Office of Rail and Road | Fourth annual assessment of safety performance on the strategic road network 2 Contents Executive summary 3 1. Safety performance on the strategic road network in 2024 11 2. Effectiveness and operation of the end-to-end safety systems on smart motorways 25 3. Smart motorways evidence”
“Making journeys even safer with radar-based technology  ## What's happening We've upgraded motorways across the country with technology which detects stopped vehicles .”
“National Highways drops smart motorway safety option  By **[[name redacted]](/author/adaa7253-f1b6-4b77-96fd-32a9de208f02/chris-ames)** 22/11/2022 ## National”
No evidence found does not mean the action did not happen.
No specific action could be extracted with a verified quote.
No specific action could be extracted with a verified quote.
- Each report's concerns were extracted by Nemotron 3 Nano on Nebius Token Factory, each with a quote copied from the report.
- Concerns from reports to National Highways at least six months apart were compared by meaning (Qwen3 embeddings) and wording (TF-IDF).
- The closest pairs were judged by Nemotron 3 Super with reasoning on. Only identical or closely related, with confidence of at least 0.70, are shown.
- Every quote was checked by code as an exact substring of the original text. Names of staff and family are redacted, and the deceased are named by report title only.
| Link | Meaning | Wording | Judge | Coroner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 → 2021 | 0.79 | 0.28 | Closely related · 0.86 | different |
| 2019 → 2021 | 0.73 | 0.29 | Closely related · 0.85 | different |
| 2021 → 2022 | 0.82 | 0.22 | Identical · 0.92 | different |
| 2021 → 2022 | 0.76 | 0.51 | Closely related · 0.90 | different |
| 2019 → 2022 | 0.80 | 0.41 | Closely related · 0.85 | different |
| 2019 → 2022 | 0.80 | 0.17 | Closely related · 0.80 | different |
| 2021 → 2023 | 0.75 | 0.32 | Identical · 0.95 | different |
| 2021 → 2023 | 0.82 | 0.32 | Identical · 0.92 | different |
| 2022 → 2023 | 0.81 | 0.15 | Identical · 0.90 | different |
| 2019 → 2023 | 0.76 | 0.23 | Closely related · 0.90 | different |
| 2021 → 2025 | 0.77 | 0.40 | Closely related · 0.90 | different |
| 2019 → 2025 | 0.74 | 0.33 | Closely related · 0.90 | different |
| 2023 → 2025 | 0.76 | 0.28 | Identical · 0.90 | different |
| 2021 → 2025 | 0.77 | 0.35 | Closely related · 0.80 | different |
Judge model: nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b. How Nemotron did the work · Full methodology.
Drafted by Nemotron 3 Ultra and reviewed by a person before publication.
Between 2019 and 2025, coroners raised repeated Prevention of Future Deaths reports consistently identified the absence of continuous hard shoulders and gaps in emergency refuge areas on All Lane Running smart motorways as a hazard. The 2019 M6 report detailed a 2.5-mile refuge gap on an elevated section with no safe retreat. Subsequent reports in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 described collisions where vehicles could not leave live lanes due to the lack of a hard shoulder or nearby refuge, with one coroner calling for a wider national review. The organisation responded with promises to publish reports, run driver information campaigns, and install Stopped Vehicle Detection on all operational ALR schemes by September 2022. Despite these promises, a similar concern was raised again in 2023 and 2025 regarding the fundamental lack of stopping space between refuge areas spaced 1.6 miles apart and the absence of monitoring. No published response was found for the 2025 report.
Questions a coroner might ask
- What is the current maximum spacing between emergency refuge areas on all lane running schemes and what risk assessment supports that distance?
- What monitoring capability exists on all lane running schemes to detect a stationary vehicle in a live lane within the intervals between refuge areas?
- What design criteria determine whether a motorway stretch is appropriate for conversion to all lane running, specifically regarding elevation, verge width and barrier type?
- What progress has been made on the promised wider review or inquiry into smart motorway safety across the network?
- How is the effectiveness of driver information campaigns on breakdown procedures measured and audited?
- What is the current status of Stopped Vehicle Detection rollout on all operational all lane running smart motorways?
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This shows that a similar concern was raised again after an earlier report. It does not say why, and it is not a finding about any organisation or person. To report an error, see the corrections route.