Skip to main content

38 deaths on smart motorways in last five years, BBC reveals 

The UK government has told the BBC’s Panorama investigation programme that 38 people have been killed on smart motorways in the last five years. 
By Ben Spencer January 27, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Smart motorways are the subject of safety concerns in the UK (Picture: Highways England)

Smart motorways use the hard shoulder as an extra lane with the aim of improving traffic flow – but motoring organisations and safety groups have raised concerns that this puts drivers and breakdown assistance teams at risk.

The BBC says drivers who break down can be trapped in speeding traffic. 

Panorama sent a Freedom of Information request to Highways England, which revealed the number of ‘near misses’ on a section of the M25 motorway around London has increased 20-fold since the hard shoulder was removed in 2014. 

There were 72 near misses in the five years before the road was converted into a smart motorway – but this increased to 1,485 in the five years afterwards.

Additional findings revealed that one warning sign on the same stretch of the M25 has been out of action for 336 days. 

Transport secretary Grant Shapps emphasised the need to fix smart motorways because they are too confusing for drivers. 

"We absolutely have to have these as safe or safer than regular motorways or we shouldn't have them at all,” he told Panorama. 
The government is to publish a review which is expected to provide safety recommendations. 

Meanwhile a separate group of MPs will publish its own report calling for a halt to further smart highways until more research can be carried out into their safety. 

Highways England says plans to expand smart motorways were approved by ministers and is gathering facts about safety.

A spokesperson is quoted as saying: "Any death on our roads is one too many, and our deepest sympathies remain with the family and friends of those who lost their lives."
 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Scrap all-lane running plans, say MPs
    June 30, 2016
    Plans to convert hundreds of miles of UK motorway hard shoulder into permanent driving lanes should be scrapped while major safety concerns exist, the Government’s Transport Committee has said. In 'all lane running', the latest version of smart motorways, the hard shoulder is used as a live lane of traffic. Previous schemes have only used the hard shoulder at peak times or to deal with congestion. The Committee did not agree with Government that this is an incremental change and a logical extension of
  • ACE report: private sector and user-pay for English roads
    May 16, 2018
    It’s one minute to midnight for funding England’s roads, according to a timely new report - and the clock’s big hand is pointing to some form of user-pay solution, reports David Arminas. Is there any way out of future user-pay funding for England’s highway infrastructure? The answer is a resounding ‘no’, according to the recently-published report Funding Roads for the Future. The 25-page document by the London-based Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) calls for a radical rethink about how to
  • Brake speaks out to support UK motorway speed cameras
    February 4, 2014
    Responding to reports that the UK Highways Agency is to roll out speed cameras on stretches of ‘smart’ motorways, road safety charity Brake has spoken in support of the proposal. Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive, Brake, the road safety charity, said: "Speed cameras are an extremely well evidenced, cost-effective way to improve safety and reduce deaths and injuries on roads where they are placed, preventing families going through the trauma of a sudden bereavement or life-changing injury. Put simpl
  • Two wheels good
    June 25, 2018
    As cycling becomes an increasingly popular method for commuting and recreation, what moves are afoot to keep the growing numbers of cyclists safe on ever-more-busy roads? Alan Dron puts on his helmet and pedals off to look. It would have seemed incredible just a decade ago, but cycling in London has become almost unfeasibly popular. The Transport for London (TfL) June 2017 Strategic Cycling Analysis document noted there were now 670,000 cycle trips a day in the UK capital, an increase of 130% since 2000.