An investigation by the BBC’s Panorama programme has forced the government to release statistics showing 38 people have been killed on ‘smart motorways’ in the past five years.
This government admission is the first time the number of people killed has been officially released since the introduction of the new motorway management system several years ago.
Smart motorways are actively managed, and use the former hard shoulder as a live running lane for traffic, as a way of reducing congestion. They have been criticised for some time, as drivers who suffer breakdowns can be stranded in speeding traffic.
The newly-established smart motorways are now facing a safety review and an overhaul of how they are operated to make them safer.
The statistics revealed by BBC Panorama’s Freedom of Information (FoI) request are alarming: As well as the 38 people killed on smart motorways in the past five years, the total number of ‘near misses’ has increased by as much as 20 times.
One section of the M25 has seen ‘near misses’ increase from 72 in the five years before the motorway was converted into a smart motorway, to 1,485 in the following five years.
The reason the number of people killed is so significant is because the smart motorway network only makes up a small proportion of the total road network.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC: “We absolutely have to have these as safe or safer than regular motorways or we shouldn’t have them at all.”
BBC Panorama is reporting a radar system will be fitted across the entire smart motorway network over the next three years. This system will detect broken-down vehicles as soon as they stop.
Currently, the average time taken to spot a stopped vehicle is 17 minutes, with an average of another 17 minutes before the driver receives assistance.
There is also a suggestion that Highways England will end the use of ‘dynamic hard shoulders’, which alternate between a hard shoulder and a live lane when traffic gets heavy.
AA president Edmund King added: “It’s just the most awful situation when you’ve broken down and your kids are in the back of the car, and there’s nothing you can do to protect your kids.
“I certainly believe smart motorways are a scandal because, as we’ve been saying from the outset, they are dangerous, they’re not fit for purpose.”
