Top 10 reasons for motorway lane closures

Motorway lanes in England were closed almost half a million times last year according to Highways England – the resulting delays estimated to have cost the economy up to £1bn.

Next time you find yourself at a standstill on the motorway, chances are the delay is caused by one of the following ten reasons.

Motorway lane closures - Top 10 causes 2014

1. Breakdown (hard shoulder) 145,265 (33%)

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of motorway lane closures are due to breakdowns. To keep road users safe, it is often necessary to close the driving lane during the recovery. Breaking down on as motorway is a stressful and potentially dangerous event – make certain you have a good breakdown recovery policy in place before your next long distance driving trip. Please note: If you breakdown on a motorway in France you will have to use the emergency phones at the side of the road to call out the recovery service operated by the French police – nobody else is permitted to attend broken down vehicles on this type of road. You will be charged a fee, but if you ask to be taken to the nearest exit slip, you can ask your own breakdown service provider to take you from there. Get a quote for Euro breakdown cover for this summer's trip.

2. Planned road works 61,587 (14%)

The proportions after first place dip significantly, with the second most likely cause of a lane closure making up well under half the amount of breakdowns. Roadworks are often the target of motorists’ vitriol, but the figures show that they’re far from the main culprit.

3. Breakdown (stopped on motorway lane) 40,192 (9%)

Having your car die on you while you are on the motorway and being unable to make it to the hard shoulder is the stuff nightmares are made of. It happened to over 40,000 motorists last year and accounted for almost one in ten of all lane closures.

4. Obstruction (other) 36,042 (8%)

The 36,000 items that caused a motorway lane to be closed last year included 3925 straps, 6742 tyres and 648 shed loads.

5. Road traffic collision (no injury) 29,656 (7%)

Minor shunts resulted in motorway lane closures on almost 30,000 occasions.

6. Administration 23,705 (5%)

This catch-all phrase includes public reports of a car driving erratically, or a police stop.

7. Pedestrian 12,759 (3%)

Pedestrians wandering onto motorways caused almost 13,000 lane closures in one year.

8. Observation 12,649 (3%)

It's not entirely clear who is watching and what is being looked for, but 'observation' caused over 12,000 lane closures.

9. Other incident 8565 (2%)

This category includes 122 unsupervised children, 152 thrown objects, and 371 cases of snow or freezing rain.

10. Other non-legal use of hard shoulder 7446 (2%)

The data above was obtained following a freedom of information request made by the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

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