Deaths lead to overhaul for smart motorways

A £1.6BILLION smart motorway programme will be given a major overhaul after ministers admitted the routes are not as safe as they should be.

An 18-point ‘action plan’ recommending sweeping changes was slipped out yesterday on a tumultuous day for coronavirus-related news.

Since the routes’ introduction in 2006, road bosses have insisted smart motorways – where the hard shoulder is used for traffic to ease congestion – are safer because they have regularly spaced emergency laybys.

But MPs, motoring groups and victims’ families have raised serious concerns after a spate of fatal accidents resulting from drivers becoming stranded in ‘live lanes’ of traffic. Yesterday’s report revealed there had been

‘Help rebuild confidence’

44 smart motorway-related deaths since 2015.

Under the changes, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed the existing 60 miles of ‘dynamic’ smart motorways will be scrapped because they cause too much confusion. They will be converted to permanent ‘all lane running’ routes without a hard shoulder, but with an increase in places for vehicles to stop in an emergency.

Mr Shapps said: ‘The extended package of measures I have set out will help rebuild public confidence in our motorway network and ensure safety is firmly at the heart of the programme.’

But Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason, 44, was killed on the M1 after pulling over following a minor accident, said: ‘He [Mr Shapps] thinks he can smooth this over and he is trying to do a PR job, but it won’t work.’

In Scotland, plans are being considered for a smart M8 but critics have described the proposal as a ‘recipe for disaster’.