Key safety technology failed on motorways across Greater Manchester and the north west on a busy Saturday afternoon, it's been revealed. A whistleblower claimed motorists' lives were put at risk as a result, but National Highways bosses said 'well-rehearsed procedures' were put in place and no emergency incidents were reported during the outage.
A second, separate incident also led to the loss of radar technology called 'stopped vehicle detection' along an eight-mile 'smart motorway' stretch of the busy M6 in Cheshire, but that was caused by a localised power outage, the Manchester Evening News can reveal.
National Highways said it 'temporarily lost the ability' to set motorway signs and signals in Greater Manchester and across the region at 12.35pm last Saturday, February 11, revealing an 'issue with roadside technology' that lasted short of two hours. The outage also affected the motorway network in Yorkshire and the North East, the Midlands and the South West.
