The mean and median carriageway impact duration times and number of incidents by impact duration on all motorways

The Highways Agency Command and Control database is an incident management system which captures details such as the duration of a carriageway impact.

A Carriageway Impact results from any incident where the capacity (of one or more running lanes) has been reduced or where there is deemed to be a risk to a road user such as debris. An impact may or may not result in a full carriageway or motorway closure. A carriageway impact can relate to a single lane that has been closed for a period of time. A carriageway impact is recorded as one impact whether it affects one or both sides of the carriageway i.e. it is not directional.

A Carriageway Impact incident includes:-

• Incidents upon the HA network not just the TOS patrolled network • Incidents on managed motorway sections even if hard shoulder is not in use • Hard shoulder if being used as live lane during road works. • Any debris in a live lane which should be graded as immediate response • ETM (Emergency Traffic Management) lane or road closures • Minor pieces of debris that pose a risk to say motorcyclists • Rolling road blocks And Excludes:- • Abnormal loads • Congestion – either incident related or not • Reductions in speed due to mandatory speed limits • Planned or scheduled road works • Reduction in speed due to advisory speed limits set by the RCC • Impact on the hard shoulder

The information provided is a high level national overview of the number and average duration of carriageway impact incidents and it is a requirement to produce this information, in this format, against the Highways Agency Business Plan measure.

Please note only incidents where a carriageway impact has been recorded will be included.

Only incidents that occurred on a motorway including Dartford Crossing and some APTR’s classified as a motorway such as A1(M) will be included.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

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Last Updated August 25, 2026, 09:19 (UTC)
Created January 3, 2012, 16:08 (UTC)
Theme Transport