Coroners write to National Highways over future of smart motorways

Eight coroners across the UK have now issued prevention of future death notices about smart motorways. The decision to stop building new smart motorways was welcomed by many grieving families across the country, but people still have safety concerns about the smart motorways already in place.

Smart motorways were introduced by Highways England in 2014 using technology to manage the flow of traffic and using the hard shoulder as an extra lane. Due to this motorists have to rely on emergency refuge areas to stop if required, and the speed limit of the motorway can also be varied depending on the flow of traffic.

Coroners in Sheffield, Berkshire, Bedfordshire/Luton, Doncaster and Northamptonshire are among those who have issued Regulation 28 Reports to prevent future deaths. Regarding the reports, a National Highways spokesperson said: "Any loss of life is a tragedy and our sympathies remain with the families affected.

Do you think all residential roads should have a 20mph speed limit? Let us know^[1]

“Safety is our highest priority and it’s important we engage fully with inquests. This is not about defending smart motorways. Our attendance is to assist coroners in determining the cause and circumstances of each incident by providing factual information, including how our roads operate and are designed.

“We and the Government continue to invest £900 million in further safety improvements on existing smart motorways.” Claire Mercer's husband Jason died in 2019 on the stretch of the M1 near Nottinghamshire which had no hard shoulder.

The 47-year-old, from Rotherham said: "I guess it just goes to show that there is a really big problem and it's been going on for years now and the coroners are trying to do their bit but they are limited."

She continued: "National Highways just need to stop now as they are just killing loads and loads of people." Claire has been campaigning against smart motorways for almost five years and says in that time they have been able to significantly increase awareness of what smart motorways are.

She added: "When I started campaigning barely anyone knew what a smart motorway was, and those that thought they did thought it was to do with the cameras and fines. The biggest thing we have managed to achieve is bringing what they actually are to the attention of everyone."

Ian Taylor, who is a director at the Alliance for British Drivers, explained that the alliance is not happy with smart motorways but also acknowledged that some accidents taking place on the roads could have happened on any type of motorways.

He stated: "Overall we don't like smart motorways and we think they were a bad idea." Mr Taylor explained they were being used as a cheap way to increase the capacity of roads rather than widening the roads and adding lanes, and they can lead to "dangerous situations."

Mr Taylor said he could understand why smart motorways could have been considered in urban areas where the roads cannot have additional lanes created, but in most places thought they were unnecessary.

References

1. ^{^} Let us know (ngx.me)