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Real-time hazard info to be given to south-west car insurance customers

19/06/07

Car insurance customers driving in the south-west of England will now be able to gain real-time information about upcoming motorway hazards, following the roll out of a new road safety system.

The Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling (Midas) service from the Highways Agency has gone live on the M4 and M32 near Bristol for the very first time.

It uses a system of embedded road sensors to record information such as traffic flow problems before automatically transferring important details to roadside electronic messaging boards.

So far, 23 colour signs and 4 text-based signs have been installed on the routes, which will alert car insurance customers to hazards such as slow-moving traffic, temporary speed restrictions and uncleared road safety incidents up ahead.

Mark Arberry, project manager at the Highways Agency, has explained the potential road safety benefits of the new information service.

"The Midas system helps to tackle one of the most common causes of accidents on our motorways - motorists being surprised by stationary traffic," he said.

"Midas has already proved its worth in preventing accidents . and it important that these very busy stretches of the M4 and M32 are part of the system."

If the road safety project proves to be a success, it could potentially help to cut the number of serious incidents reported on UK roads each year.

According to figures from the Department for Transport published last year, there were 3,201 road fatalities in 2005, which represented a 0.6 per cent drop on the 3,221 deaths recorded in 2004.