MPs today warn that dangerous safety flaws must be addressed and smart motorways construction must be halted.
In a damning report, they accuse transport chiefs and civil servants of pressing ahead with the roads despite ‘major concerns’.
According to some reports, officials underestimated the danger of removing hard shoulders.
Technology designed to save lives is still not in use despite a promise given in 2016 to the Commons transport committee, which wrote today’s report.
‘Lives would almost certainly have been saved had the technology been in place sooner,’ the MPs say. ‘The promised safety improvements were delivered neither efficiently nor effectively.’
Their report raises serious questions about stopped vehicle detection systems and calls to have them reviewed by the Office of Rail and Road watchdogs.
In the four-year period from 2014 to 2019, fifty-three people died on smart roads. At least 18 deaths were attributed to smart motorway safety systems.
MPs today stated that smart motorway construction must be stopped because of serious safety issues. In a damning report, they accuse transport chiefs and civil servants of pressing ahead with the roads despite ‘major concerns’ (pictured: deadly crash on smart motorway near Sheffield in 2019)
SVD technology is supposed to detect vehicles when they break down, alerting CCTV controllers and traffic officers so they can reach cars marooned in live traffic.
The report says MPs on the committee raised concerns five years ago about ‘all-lane running’ (ALR) motorways, where the hard shoulder is permanently removed.
Safety measures in an action plan ordered by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last year did ‘not fully address the risks associated with the removal of the hard shoulder’, the report says.
This is partly because he demanded that National Highways, which is responsible for the motorways, ensured that emergency laybys were closer together in future plans.
Current laybys are 1.5 miles apart for drivers who have to break down in live traffic. But the committee calls for a ‘retrofit’ programme on existing schemes so they are a ‘maximum’ of a mile apart, or 0.75 miles ‘where physically possible’.
The report adds: ‘In conclusion, we are not convinced that the benefits of all-lane running motorways are sufficient to justify the risks to safety associated with permanently removing the hard shoulder.’
Safety measures in an action plan ordered by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (pictured outside Downing Street) last year did ‘not fully address the risks associated with the removal of the hard shoulder’, the report says
Technology designed to save lives is still not in use despite a promise given in 2016 to the Commons transport committee, which wrote today’s report (pictured: Heavy traffic on the M1 ‘smart motorway’ in Bedfordshire)
It stops short of calling for the hard shoulder to be reinstated, saying the reduction in road capacity this would cause could push more vehicles on to ‘less safe’ local roads, resulting in more deaths and pollution.
Instead, the committee suggests that ALR rollout should be halted pending more data to prove that they are as safe or better than National Highways claims.
Five years of safety data is available for only 29 miles of ALR routes, making assessments for decision-making ‘limited’ and ‘volatile’.
The committee says the analysis should be extended to the remaining 112 miles of ALR installed prior to last year – and in the meantime the rollout should be halted.
Up to 250 miles of ALR are expected to be in place by 2025.
The Government decided last year that this format should become the default smart motorway in England, but this was ‘premature’, the report says.
It also notes that smart motorways with a permanent hard shoulder are less likely to have higher casualty rates.
‘Controlled’ smart motorways, which retain the hard shoulder but have technology installed, are the safest M-roads and ministers should revisit the case for them, the report says.
One of the most damaging passages of the report states: ‘Successive administrations, together with the Department [for Transport] and National Highways’ predecessor, Highways England, underestimated the scale of safety measures needed effectively and reliably to mitigate the risks associated with the permanent removal of the hard shoulder.
‘The Department and Highways England failed to deliver safety improvements to all-lane running motorways in a timely fashion, despite having promised previous transport committees that such improvements would be prioritised. Moreover, the communication of this radical change in the design of our motorways has been woeful.’
Demonstrators marching in protest against smart motorways carry coffins across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square, London, Monday November 1
Yesterday, families of smart motorway victims carried coffins to Westminster to demand that the hard shoulder be immediately reinstated.
The MPs praise the Daily Mail’s devastating undercover investigation into the safety of smart motorways. Six weeks of work by a reporter at South Mimms regional controller centre in Hertfordshire revealed that more than one-tenth of safety cameras had been misplaced, broken or facing the wrong direction.
In the four years up to 2019, 53 people died on the roads, with at least 18 deaths being attributed to the system.
Tory MP Greg Smith, who sits on the transport committee, said: ‘The evidence in this report, along with excellent investigations by newspapers like the Daily Mail, highlight just how far we still need to go to ensure the safety of the great British motorist.’
Karl McCartney (a Tory MP) suggested that a full public inquiry might be required.
He added: ‘Smart motorways are, and always have been, a lazy, bean-counting and dangerously-held view of a means of trying to expand motorway capacity without spending any more of the huge amount of money raised by vehicle and fuel taxes.’
The inquiry found that emergency services struggle to reach the frontlines of incidents on ALR motorways, even though all four lanes are blocked. It recommends that the Office of Rail and Road signs off major changes to England’s roads, becoming a de facto regulator.
Because motorists are unable to reach an emergency layby, forty percent of ALR motorway breakdowns occur in a live lane.
And a poll by the RAC found 60 per cent of drivers want ministers to go one step further than the committee’s report and scrap smart motorways, reinstating the hard shoulder.
Jim McMahon, Labour transport spokesman, said: ‘The Government must finally listen to what it is being told by countless victims’ families, or we face more tragedy on our roads.’
A DfT spokesman said: ‘We’re pleased that the transport committee recognises that reinstating the hard shoulder on all all-lane running motorways could put more drivers and passengers at risk of death and serious injury and that we’re right to focus on upgrading their safety.’