Say yes to cheaper van, home and car insurance

Car insurance customers in the north-west could keep their no-claims bonus intact thanks to a new high-tech service announced by road officials.

TechMAC is a speedy maintenance system designed for the 2,814 electronic road signs and 1,400 emergency phones in the region, reports the Highways Agency.

The scheme is worth £12.5 million and is only the second of its kind in the UK - providing a system that will ensure technical faults on roads like the M6, M62 and M60 are reported and repaired quickly around the clock, the group claimed.

Response times to problems on the motorways were previously as long as four hours; the new equipment will cut this down to ten minutes, it said.

"What this scheme will do is provide a faster, more efficient service for drivers and continually look to improve conditions for drivers," said Highways Agency project manager Keith Hill.

According to the Department for Transport's statistics, 3,201 people were killed on the roads in 2005.

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