TERRIFYING motorway video shows the moment window frames fell from the back of a van and in to the path of an HGV.
Both vehicles are then forced to pull over on the smart motorway stretch of the M6 which does not have a hard shoulder.
The driver of the lorry said today the absence of the protective lanes made a dangerous situation even more “terrible”.
The incident happened on August 7 on the southbound motorway near Sandbach, Cheshire.
Shane Carey, the 51-year-old driver of the HGV, posted his heart-stopping footage with the caption: “Ooops.”
The dashcam footage shows a van carrying frames and glass overtaking Shane’s 44 tonne HGV.
Suddenly to frames become loose on the back of the truck and fall on to the motorway.
The HGV is forced to take quick action as it brakes sharply on the motorway. However, the momentum of the lorry takes it over one of the frames which landed in front of Shane.
The van driver and Shane then pull into the side of the motorway. However, they are forced to stop on a live lane as the motorway has no hard shoulder.
Instead, “smart” motorway signs are meant to warn traffic behind to stay out of the lane.
But Shane today said the incident was made more dangerous because there was no hard shoulder to stop on.
Shane said: “I was travelling fully loaded 44 tonne lorry and I thought oh s***. I couldn’t go anywhere as I had cars around me and no hard shoulder.
“ I thought he was lucky as it wasn’t very busy like a normal day, they would have fallen on top of a passing car. On a normal day this could have been a whole lot worse…as we had to stop in live lanes.
“They were metal frames that fell off. They got entangled around my axle and I had to free them before I could continue.
“The hardest part was rejoining the carriage way as there is no hard shoulder I couldn’t drive down and build up my speed to rejoin. Nobody would allow me out. I had to wait for a fellow truck driver to hold the traffic.
“I think it’s completely wrong doing away with the hard shoulder. It just creates another line of traffic making even harder for the emergency services to get through.”
Viewers agreed, including Lee England said who asked: “How is that smart motorway in anyway safe with no hard shoulder? Bloody ridiculous!”
Gavin Spence said: “Terrible terrible things.”
The Police Federation are opposed to the motorways after officers complained they had nowhere safe to stop drivers suspected of traffic offences. MPs have also called on the government to stop the roll out of smart motorways because of safety concerns.
A 62-year-old was killed on a smart section of the M1 as she sat inside a broken down car near Sheffield last September.
