Yorkshire MP calls for 'death trap' smart motorways to be scrapped

Sarah Champion said at least 79 people have already lost their lives on these ”inherently dangerous” motorways, when she spoke in Parliament.

The Labour MP for Rotherham highlighted the cases of Jason Mercer and Nargis Begum, who were killed in separate crashes on stretches of the M1 that had no hard shoulder after they were forced to stop.

She said it is “staggering” that revised plans allow more than a mile between emergency refuge areas and the technology used to detect stationary vehicles so lanes can be closed is “unreliable”.

It comes after National Highways admitted its Dynac system, which includes signs, signals and stopped vehicle detection technology, stopped working across most of England for around two hours today.

Last year, the Government announced it would pause the roll out of new all-lane running smart motorway schemes, until five years of safety data is available, but said construction on existing schemes would be completed.

“The lack of a hard shoulder is inherently dangerous, particularly without frequent emergency refuges to provide a place of safety,” said Ms Champion.

“Imagine you’re having a heart attack, your car is breaking down or you’ve been in an accident, and you then have to drive a mile and a half to get to a safe place of refuge. It’s difficult to fathom.

“The only explanation I can come up with is that the decision was made on cost grounds – a hard fact to reconcile with National Highways' repeated claims that their overall priority is the safety of motorists.”

She added: “While the Government dithers, constituencies like mine continue to host death trap roads. Make no mistake, all lane running motorways are death traps.“

She said the Government can prevent further loss of life by accepting that smart motorways are “a mistake” and hard shoulders should be introduced across the network.

Roads Minister Richard Holden said he has “every sympathy” for the relatives of people who have lost loved ones and he will listen to their concerns.

But he also said smart motorways are “far safer” than other roads as they are constantly monitored with a network of cameras and stopped vehicle detection technology.

According to the Tory Minister, 75 per cent of stopped vehicles are detected within 20 seconds and around 90 per cent are detected within a minute, but National Highways is “working hard to deliver further improvements' '.

Around £900m is being invested in upgrading safety features on these motorways and an extra 150 emergency refuge areas will be added, he said.

“While I recognise that smart motorway drivers need to feel confident on them, we are using all the evidence we can to enable us to act and ensure these concerns are addressed,” Mr Holden added.

Ms Begum died in a collision on a stretch of the M1 near Sheffield which had no hard shoulder, in September 2018, after the Nissan Qashqai she was a passenger in broke down.

The 62-year-old grandmother and her husband Mohammed Bashir, 69, who had been driving, waited for help by the car for around 17 minutes before another vehicle collided with it.

At an inquest in September, a coroner ruled the lack of a hard shoulder contributed to her death.

It came after another coroner ruled that Mr Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, who died after they stopped on the motorway, near Rotherham in June 2019, had been unlawfully killed and "a lack of hard shoulder contributed to this tragedy”.

South Yorkshire Police then conducted a scoping exercise, but announced in February that National Highways “cannot be held liable” because it “did not owe road users a relevant duty of care” under the terms of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.