A section of smart motorway where the driver of a stationary vehicle was killed, causing a coroner to raise concerns over the distance between safe places to stop, is not due to have extra emergency refuges retrofitted, it has emerged.
Emma Serrano, area coroner for Staffordshire sent the government-owned company a Regulation 28: Report to Prevent Future Deaths in relation to the death of Kevin O'Reilly, expressing concern over the frequency of emergency areas and that the motorway was ‘not monitored’.
In June 2023, Mr O’Reilly ran out of petrol on the all lane running (ALR) M6 northbound approaching Junction 12 and was stationary in lane three when his car was hit by an HGV.
He suffered a traumatic brain injury, for which he was treated in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities until February 2024 when he was admitted to the Emergency Department in Warwick Hospital.
Mr O’Reilly suffered a large bleed inside the brain and died from a traumatic intracranial haemorrhage.
In her report, Ms Serrano said that evidence at the inquest ‘revealed matters giving rise to concern’, with ‘a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken’.
She wrote: ‘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.
‘It was accepted that there was no area for vehicles to stop should they need to, unless they were near to the refuse (sic) areas spaced 1.6 miles apart, and the all lanes open motorways were not monitored.’
She ordered National Highways to reply by 14 April with ‘details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out the timetable for action’ or explain why no action is proposed.
A National Highways spokesperson said: ‘Every death on our roads is one too many and our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Mr O’Reilly.
‘We will review the coroner’s comments and respond within 56 days as requested.’
There is no place to stop of any kind northbound between Junction 11a, where the M6 toll merges with the mainline M6 and Junction 12 – a distance of well over a mile.
However, the section of ALR smart motorway from Junction 11a to Junction 13 is not part of the National Emergency Area Retrofit (NEAR) programme.
This is due to see over 150 additional emergency areas (EAs) added by the beginning of April, funded by £390m pledged by the previous government during the current roads period.
The NEAR programme was a response to a 2021 report from the Commons Transport Committee, which recommended that National Highways should retrofit EAs to existing ALR schemes to make them a maximum of 1.5km (one mile) apart, decreasing to every 1km (0.75 miles) where physically possible.
In April 2023, shortly before the incident that caused Mr O’Reilly’s death, Highways revealed that National Highways had added 13 EAs, including five on the M6 between Junctions 13 and 15.
However, the funding provided for the NEAR programme was not enough to ensure that the recommended distance was achieved across the network, meaning that sections such as the one where Mr O’Reilly was killed were not upgraded.
A National Highways spokesperson told Highways: ‘After looking at the frequency of live lane stops alongside safety data, we prioritised locations where emergency areas could make the most difference and bring benefits to drivers as soon as possible.’
In the absence of a road investment strategy from next month, it is unclear whether National Highways will be funded to carry out any further retrofitting of emergency areas.
