Review promised on smart motorways

Transport Secretary

Grant Shapps has ordered an independent review of the safety of smart motorways.

Mr Shapps says that evidence suggests that ‘smart’ motorways are as safe as, or safer than, conventional examples.

But he has still instructed the Office of Rail and Road, Highways England’s independent statutory monitor, to review the latest safety statistics that the agency has produced.

His department will also be reviewing the report that Highways England has submitted, on how quickly it is implementing a package of 18 measures he unveiled as part of a £500m plan launched last year. These include a faster roll out of technology that can detect when a vehicle has stopped.

Shapps’s move comes in the wake of heightened controversy over smart motorways, which dispense with any hard shoulder and can lead to vehicles being stranded in the nearside lane, where caravans and slower vehicles tend to travel.