National Highways has clarified its policy after The Sunday Telegraph reported on the organisation’s actions to support drivers exit emergency areas (EA) on smart motorways.

“Campaigners claim National Highways are no longer closing the nearside lane to traffic to help motorists safely leave these areas to rejoin the motorway,” said the NH response.

“In fact, technology on these stretches of motorway offers our control room staff a number of options to keep drivers safe. Safety is our number one priority which is why we ask drivers to never exit an emergency area without speaking to us first.”

The explanation continued: “All EAs have an emergency phone with signs advising drivers to call and follow the operator’s advice to rejoin the main carriageway. When that call comes in, our operation centres initially sets a ‘lane divert right’ arrow above the adjacent lane and reduce speeds to 50mph so drivers can rejoin the motorway.

“Signs approaching the emergency area will also read ‘slow vehicle joining ahead’ to alert other road users. Drivers are then advised to exit the emergency area when they consider it safe to do so. This is the recommended action but there is also the option to set a red X if needed.”

The National Highways clarification concludes by saying “We monitor the situation through CCTV and other support is available, including sending traffic officers to assist if needed. This is not a new way of working. The suggested initial action for our operators has always been to set ‘lane divert right’ arrows in the first instance.”