Smart m-ways ARE death traps, admits minister who backed them
As it’s revealed they have claimed 38 lives...
DOZENS of people have been killed on smart motorways because they are not the design that MPs originally signed off on, a former minister has revealed.
Shocking flaws in the scheme’s rollout have been identified in a BBC Panorama documentary that exposes the death toll for the first time.
The programme also found that on one section of the M25, the number of ‘nearmisses’ between stopped vehicles and traffic has increased 20-fold since it became a smart motorway.
Sir Mike Penning, the road safety minister from 2010 to 2012, said final approval was granted after a trial of a smart motorway that is ‘fundamentally different’ to the versions built today.
The Tory MP says the new roads, where the hard shoulder is removed to ease congestion, are ‘endangering people’s lives’ with 38 people killed in the past five years – and there is ‘no evidence’ they are safe.
On one section of the M25 there were 72 near misses between 2009 and 2014. In the five years since, there have been 1,485.
In tonight’s episode of Panorama, called Britain’s Killer Motorways, Sir Mike says that ministers cleared the scheme after a 2010 trial on the M42 in which refuges were spaced 500 to 600 metres apart.
However, smart motorways are now built with refuges up to 1.5 miles apart and dozens of motorists have died because they were unable to reach safety.
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Roadside Rescue and Recovery, of which Sir Mike is chairman, has accused Highways England of a ‘ shocking degree of carelessness’.
Damningly Sir Mike claims there is ‘no evidence’ that the current design of smart motorways, with refuges often more than a mile apart, is safe.
The former roads minister told the Daily Mail: ‘ We were presented with findings from a smart motorway trial on the M42 and they looked perfectly fine, with rescue areas spaced every 500-600 metres apart. But now we are in a situation where the refuges are up to 1.5 miles apart and people are dying on smart motorways.
‘What we signed off on is fundamentally different to what we see now and there is no evidence smart motorways are safe.’
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has ordered a review of smart motorways after a spate of fatal collisions triggered serious concerns over their safety.
Figures show 19,316 motorists broke down in a live lane on a smart motorway in 2017 and 2018 – a rate of 26 a day. They were forced to wait an average of 17 minutes to be spotted, and a further 17 minutes for rescue.
Jim O’Sullivan, the boss of Highways England, admitted that drivers have died because of delays in installing radar technology to spot stricken cars.
Ministers will order Highways England to fit radars – currently only installed on two stretches of the M25 – across the entire network, says the BBC. Ministers have already announced plans to scrap ‘dynamic’ smart motorways – where the hard shoulder is only used as a live lane in peak times – as drivers find them confusing.
The number of lay-bys will be increased as a result of the latest review, and Mr Shapps told Panorama: ‘We absolutely have to have these as safe or safer as regular motorways or we shouldn’t have them at all.’
The Government is now set to launch a campaign to raise awareness of the risks of driving on smart motorways.
AA president Edmund King said: ‘Drivers don’t trust smart motorways and with 38 per cent of breakdowns occurring in live lanes that is not surprising.
‘The police, the AA and even the transport minister responsible for roads at the time, say the system is flawed and dangerous and must be changed. Coroners have repeated this message after needless deaths.’
Calls for a rethink have been led by Meera Naran, whose son Dev, eight, was killed on the M6 when his grandfather’s Toyota Yaris was struck by an HGV after stopping on a hard shoulder being used by traffic.
Four died on one section of the M1 in just ten months after being hit by traffic in a live lane that used to be a hard shoulder.
Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Mergeanu, 22, were killed near Sheffield when they were hit by a lorry. In September 2018 a 62-year-old woman died after she left a broken- down car, and in March last year, Derek Jacobs, 83, was struck by a coach in Derbyshire.
Panorama airs tonight at 8.30pm on BBC1.
‘No evidence they are safe’