Causes of smart motorway deaths may be explored by safety unit

SMART motorway crashes could be scrutinised by the Government’s new Road Safety Investigation Branch, the RAC Foundation has suggested, as polling shows a majority of drivers want the highways to be scrapped.

The safety unit, which brings the roads in line with the aviation and rail sectors, will investigate wider themes that cause collisions and specific incidents of concern. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said that it would have to be “selective in looking into incidents that shed light on recurring issues, such as the concerns about collisions on motorways where the hard shoulder has been turned into a running lane”.

However, the Department for Transport signalled that the smart motorways will not be the focus of the new branch.

Hard shoulders across England have been turned into live lanes as part of the smart motorway project since 2014. But 62 per cent of British drivers believe hard shoulders should be reintroduced, according to a recent poll by the RAC.

The introduction of the all-lane-running routes was paused by Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, in January as the Government launched a review into their safety.

Eight people died on motorways without a hard shoulder in 2020, figures released last month showed, with fatal crashes occurring when vehicles that had stopped in traffic were hit from behind.

The Commons transport select committee has said more data are needed to prove smart motorways are safer than traditional roads before any more are built.

The committee has also urged ministers to build more emergency refuge areas for existing smart motorways.

Mr Gooding said of the new investigation unit: “The job of investigators will be to look for background themes and patterns that link a number of collisions and then recommend actions that could prevent them [from] repeating. This is about the whole road transport system.

“The new branch could decide to look at anything, from the impact of pressure on commercial drivers to meet deadlines to the way we use smart motorways and all things in between.” The organisation will not seek to make judgments about blame or liability for collisions, but will make recommendations to the Government and police, shaping their policies.

Baroness Vere, the roads minister, said: “The UK may have some of the safest roads in the world, but tragedies still happen and any injury or death is one too many. That’s why we’re establishing the Road Safety Investigation Branch, so we can boost safety for road users even further.”