Calls for motorway safety changes after M6 wrong-way crash and rise in incidents

Motorway designers are being urged to “up their game” after an investigation found reported incidents of wrong-way driving on the roads have increased by 30% in four years - which include an incident in Lancashire.

The RAC Foundation issued the plea after National Highways figures obtained by the Press Association showed 947 incidents involving “oncoming vehicles” were reported on England’s motorways in the 12 months to May 11.

That is up from 729 during the same period four years earlier and represents an average of 18 every week, however, the most recent annual total is down 3% from 974 during the previous 12 months.

The data, released in response to a Freedom of Information request, relates to reports of wrong-way driving made to National Highways’ operations centres by various sources such as the police, traffic officers and the public.

A man in his 50s died after driving the wrong way on the M6 near Charnock Richard services, Lancashire on October 26 last year.

On that night at around 9.30pm Lancashire Police received a report of a car travelling the wrong direction on the southbound carriageway of the M6, near to Charnock Richard services.

Minutes later, they received a report of a collision between a Vauxhall Astra and a Toyota Corolla on the southbound carriageway.

The man in his 50s who was driving the Astra was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver and the passenger of the Corolla were both taken to hospital.

Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said: “To think anyone could drive the wrong way onto a motorway heading into fast-moving traffic is truly the stuff of nightmares.

“The fact that nearly 1,000 drivers did just that in the last twelve months both chills the blood and makes the case for demanding our highway engineers up their game to prevent drivers mistaking the off-ramp for a slip road.

“Whether the answer lies in re-configuring junctions or in technology – slip-road sensors that trigger roadside warnings or in-vehicle alerts – there’s clearly work to be done to establish what’s going wrong and to fix it.”

AA president Edmund King said incidents of vehicles travelling the wrong way on motorways are mainly caused by “driver impairment including by drink, drugs and fatigue”.

He explained that cases of drivers mistakenly turning onto an exit slip road instead of an entry slip road often happen at night, in poor weather, when they are confused or “blindly following their sat nav and take the instructions of ‘third on the right’ literally”.

He added: “Many people assume tourists from other countries who drive on the right are the main cause but more often the culprits are impaired local drivers.

“In rare, and sometimes fatal cases, drivers trying to avoid the police take a deliberate decision to go the wrong way.”

Mr King urged motorists to “always pay attention at motorway junctions” and called for more work to develop technology which could show alerts inside and outside vehicles when they are about to be driven the wrong way.

A National Highways spokesperson said: “Safety is our top priority, which is why every report of an oncoming vehicle triggers an immediate response to protect road users.

“This can include using roadside signals to warn drivers and reducing speed limits where necessary.

“These figures should be treated with caution as they may include unconfirmed reports received by our operations centres.

“Confirmed incidents of wrong‑way driving on motorways remain rare. Every report is treated seriously and acted on quickly.”