The grim toll on the hard shoulders
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• Possibly the worst motorway hard shoulder accident happened at the end of 1993, when a school minibus ran into the back of a stationary HGV on the hard shoulder of the M40 in Buckinghamshire, killing all those on board.
Vehicle recovery operatives tend to be most at risk. During the past year two RAC patrols and one AA man have been killed. The AA man was 35-year-old Michael Duerden, who was mending an offside puncture on the A168 near Dishforth when he was hit by a passing vehicle.
The RAC also reports that a member who had broken down was killed in a hard shoulder accident because he gave the wrong information. He gave the right location but the wrong carriageway, so the patrol had to drive right past him to the next junction before coming back. By the time it got back he had been hit by a vehicle.
Perhaps the most distressing tale of all is told by David Bardsley, of D Bardsley Truck Recovery, who said that one of his drivers pulled over to let a bee out of the cab and was immediately hit by another vehicle which automatically followed him off the motorway, killing the driver.