Plans for deadly smart motorways are SCRAPPED by Rishi Sunak …
Smart motorways[1] will no longer be built in the UK after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak[2] acknowledged serious concerns about safety and cost.
A total of 14 planned smart motorways – including 11 that are already paused and three earmarked for construction – will be scrapped from Government road building plans.
Downing Street acknowledged a lack of public trust that has seen the families of victims accuse the government of having ‘blood on their hands’ for pursuing the experiment since 2006.
Existing stretches of smart motorways are set to remain, the government said, but will be subjected to a safety refit to accommodate more emergency stopping places.
The announcement to shelve the plans comes after years of campaigning from grieving family members who have accused the government of not listening and taking necessary action following repeated ‘terrible catastrophes’.
The building of new smart motorways is being cancelled as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged concerns about safety and cost. Pictured: Cars line up on the M25 at Egham, Surrey
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged concerns about safety and cost of smart motorways
Around 10 per cent of England’s motorway network is currently made up of smart motorways. They involve various methods to manage the flow of traffic, such as converting the hard shoulder into a live running lane and variable speed limits.
There have been long-standing safety fears over smart motorways following multiple fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes without a hard shoulder were hit from behind.
Campaigners said there have been at least 79 deaths linked to smart motorways, while government figures say there were 38 recorded deaths between 2015 and 2019.
In January 2022, the Government paused the expansion of motorways where the hard shoulder is used as a permanent live traffic lane.
This was to enable five years of data to be collected to assess whether they are safe for drivers.
In his Tory leadership campaign last summer, Mr Sunak vowed to ban them.
‘All drivers deserve to have confidence in the roads they use to get around the country,’ The Telegraph quoted him as saying.
‘That’s why last year I pledged to stop the building of all new smart motorways, and today I’m making good on that promise.
‘Many people across the country rely on driving to get to work, to take their children to school and go about their daily lives, and I want them to be able to do so with full confidence that the roads they drive on are safe.’
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: ‘We want the public to know that this Government is listening to their concerns.
‘Today’s announcement means no new smart motorways will be built, recognising the lack of public confidence felt by drivers and the cost pressures due to inflation.’
Mrs Jacobs (left) has said it is hard to continue going on without her late husband Derek (pictured right)
The moment the Ford Ka hit Mr Jacobs van on a smart motorway before flipping over in the carriageway and ending up on its side in a crash was caught on dash cam
The new government plans come just days after the widow of a van driver who died in a smart motorway horror crash called for the hard shoulder to be brought back before another ‘terrible catastrophe’.
Derek Jacobs, 83, was killed when his van was hit by the red Ford Ka on the M1 near Sheffield in March 2019.
The passenger in the Ford Ka, Charles Scripps, 78, died in hospital two months after the collision.
Dashcam footage from a vehicle behind showed how the car, driven by Mr Scripps’ wife Jean, collided with the van, flipped in the air and rolled into oncoming traffic, where it was ultimately hit by a coach.
Earlier this month, a coroner ruled that the crash would not have happened if there was a hard shoulder for Mr Jacobs to pull into.
A coroner also ruled this week that a disabled man may still be alive had the road he was been driven along had a hard shoulder.
David Levett, 53, who had cerebral palsy, was a rear seat passenger when his carer’s Seat Leon was smashed into from behind by a lorry on the M1 while stationary.
The road had been converted into an ‘all-lane running’ smart motorway with no hard shoulder. This means drivers can become marooned in live traffic if they’re unable to reach an emergency layby.
Jason Mercer (left, with his wife Claire), 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu (right), 22, died when a lorry ploughed into their stationary vehicles on the M1 near Sheffield on June 7, 2019
Eight-year-old Dev Naran (left) was killed on the M6 in Birmingham in 2018 after his family’s car became stranded on a hard shoulder being used as a live lane. Nargis Begum, 62, (right) died after her broken down car was hit on the M1 in South Yorkshire in 2018
Mr Levett was rushed to University Hospital in Coventry but died after extensive surgery following the smash, on 28 January 2018.
At the hearing, senior coroner Anne Pember said: ‘I believe that, if the hard shoulder had been available for the broken down vehicle to pull into, it’s quite possible that David Levett would not have died.’ Mr Levett’s carer was ‘lucky to be alive’, the inquest was told. Both him and his brother-in-law later recovered from their injuries.
The lorry driver was charged with causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving after claiming he did not see the Seat’s hazard lights on.
It also heard that Stationary Vehicle Detection (SVD), which is supposed to notify control room staff of a broken down vehicle so they can close off the lane, had not been installed at the time.
Mr Levett’s sister subsequently called on the government to halt the rollout of smart motorways.
Angela Mower, 57, said: ‘The government really needs to look into these because people are still dying.
‘Highways England keep reassuring everyone that they are safe but clearly they are not. Since my brother died there have been more and more deaths.
‘Rishi Sunak needs to stop the rollout and really he needs to get back to traditional motorways because clearly they aren’t safe.
‘I worry for my children breaking down on them after what happened to David.
‘My brother was very vulnerable, he wasn’t able to get out and try and climb over an embankment. I’ve heard stories of mothers with babies stuck on smart motorways. These are so dangerous for vulnerable people.
‘It has been such a difficult, emotional time for my family. Maybe these deaths won’t be in vain if something is done to stop this.’ Mrs Mower, who lives with her husband, David, in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, said the cameras were not covering the lane where her brother’s car had stopped.
The announcement to shelve the plans comes after years of campaigning from grieving families. Pictured: Demonstrators march against smart motorways, Westminster, London, November 1, 2021
Demonstrators carry coffins across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square as they protest against smart motorways, November 1, 2021
In June 2019, Jason Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu died when they were hit by a lorry on the M1 near junction 34 after they stopped on the inside lane of the smart motorway section after a minor collision.
Sheffield coroner David Urpeth decided that Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu were unlawfully killed, and said: ‘I find, as a finding of fact, it is clear a lack of hard shoulder contributed to this tragedy.’
In 2018, mother-of-five Nargis Begum died after she got out of the passenger side of a car on the M1 north of Woodhall Services and it was hit by a Mercedes.
Speaking outside court, Mr Mercer’s wife, Claire, who has spearheaded the campaign against smart motorways, said: ‘We had something before that was infallible. The hard shoulder was just always there and didn’t make mistakes and we’ve replaced it with something that isn’t always there and does make mistakes.
‘And that was a conscious decision. They have designed danger into a smart motorway.
‘This is the third inquest for a total of five people now, all within a very short stretch of motorway, all very similar in occurrence. And this is just the ones we know about.
‘It keeps happened all around the country and nothing is changing.’
Mrs Mercer said Mr Jacobs’s wife Susan decided not to come to the inquest as she felt National Highways would not be held to account.
Awful toll of roads where drivers who break down have no escape
NARGIS BEGUM
The grandmother, 62, died after her broken down car was hit on the M1 in South Yorkshire in 2018.
Mrs Begum was being driven by husband Mohammed Bashir, 67. They left their Nissan Qashqai to wait for help but another car hit the vehicle, sending it into her.
A pre-inquest review hearing in December was told that warning signs on the motorway had not been activated in time to stop drivers entering the lane where the couple had broken down.
A coroner is considering referring Highways England to the Crown Prosecution Service in what would be a landmark case.
DEV NARAN
The eight-year-old was killed on the M6 in Birmingham in 2018 after his family’s car became stranded on a hard shoulder being used as a live lane.
At the inquest into the youngster’s death, coroner Emma Brown expressed concerns about the ‘risk to life from the loss of the hard shoulder’.
After the inquest his mother Meera, from Leicester, said that without changes, she believes smart motorways ‘still continue to pose threats to lives on a daily basis’.
SEVIM AND AYSE USTUN
Sevim Ustun, 49, and mother-in-law Ayse Ustun, 68, died after their family car broke down on the M25 in Essex in 2018 and was struck by a lorry.
Overhead gantry signs did not close the lane or warn of a broken down vehicle. A ten-year-old girl also suffered life-changing injuries. Police were urged to prosecute Highways England for corporate manslaughter.
DEREK JACOBS
The retired engineer, 83, was killed after pulling up when his car had tyre problems on the M1 in north Derbyshire in 2019.
His Volkswagen Crafter van came to a halt in the first lane of the motorway, formerly the hard shoulder. It was hit by a Ford Ka, which was then struck by a coach.
His widow Sally said: ‘If there had been a hard shoulder, my husband would still be alive.’
References
- ^ Smart motorways (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Rishi Sunak (www.dailymail.co.uk)