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Smart motorways may be extra deadly because orange paint in emergency refuge areas could be a skidding hazard, leaked documents reveal.
Traffic officers fear the paint makes the tarmac slippery, particularly when wet.
It could cause vehicles pulling into laybys to crash into other stopped vehicles or passengers standing by their cars, National Highways documents said.
National Highways began painting refuges in the smart motorway network orange in 2017 to make them more visible. Pictured, the M3 smart motorway near Camberley in Surrey
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last night demanded answers from road bosses, who have launched an investigation.
The AA and RAC branded the revelation 'seriously concerning' and called for action to prevent any serious casualties or deaths.
The laybys are a crucial safety feature for smart motorways, where the hard shoulder is a live traffic lane, as they are the only place motorists can go to prevent being marooned in traffic.
According to the documents, a terrifying 'near miss' on the M6 near junction 16 was attributed to a slippery refuge.
Traffic officers reported that it had the 'potential to reoccur' as it appeared to be 'a design fault' and was likely to be a 'wider problem' affecting multiple emergency laybys.
An internal email said the M6 near miss could have been 'a high potential incident with high severity rating e.g. if a member of public had been stood to the rear nearside of their vehicle'.
Another said: 'Given there may be a wider problem with other such [refuge areas] using this orange paint, can this be investigated and a solution found?'
It was in response to officers reporting the paint caused the tarmac to become
