Smart motorways cause havoc for doctors treating crash victims

SCRAPPING the hard shoulder creates serious difficulties for emergency services trying to reach motorists injured on smart motorways, Highways England files show.

A log of communications from the government-owned company obtained by The Sunday Telegraph shows its staff had to offer to “hand stop” traffic and divert ambulances the wrong way down a carriageway to reach a motorist dying after being stranded in a live lane after a breakdown. The dossier, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, shows for the first time the problems created by turning the hard shoulder into a fourth lane and removing easy access to crash scenes.

The files document attempts to reach Derek Jacobs, 83, who was killed after being hit as he tried to repair his van after failing to reach an emergency refuge area on the M1 in March 2019. Charles Scripps, 78, was a passenger in a car involved in the accident and died seven weeks later in hospital.

Transcripts of electronic communications reveal how Highways England failed to close a carriageway despite repeated “urgent” requests to allow an air ambulance to land, forcing helicopter paramedics to rush to the scene from a field near the motorway.

In the hours after the crash there were repeated reports of “heavy traffic”, potentially thwarting police, fire and ambulance efforts to get to the scene. Three patients were taken to Sheffield Northern General Hospital by ambulance. Mr Jacobs was confirmed dead at the scene an hour after the crash.

Mr Jacobs’ widow, Sally, 83, last night rounded on Highways England bosses and the Department for Transport for the continued rollout of smart motorways, claiming her husband would be alive if there had been a hard shoulder.

“It is remarkable that they eventually had to stop the traffic from the opposite direction to bring emergency services the wrong way down the motorway to reach my husband,” Mrs Jacobs, from north London, said.

“If you kill someone accidentally it’s manslaughter. But they know what is happening, so deaths on smart motorways should now be viewed as murder.

“They won’t listen. I can’t bring my beloved Derek back, but I can try to stop this happening to other people.”

Highways England refused to say whether there was a fault with their signalling system, which is meant to show red crosses barring traffic from some or all lanes. A spokesman said: “Our sympathies remain with the families and friends of Mr Jacobs and Mr Scripps.

“As there is an ongoing police investigation it would be inappropriate to comment further on the detail.”