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The Transport Committee is investigating the safety of Smart Motorways

05 March 2021

Earlier this year (2021) Transport Secretary Grant Schapps expressed his discontent with the expansion scheme for smart motorways to MPs and now The Transport Committee has launched an inquiry, investigating how safe they really are. 

At the time, the Transport Secretary said, “What I commit to is making sure that the motorways we have in this country are safer than the motorways that came before them. That is the commitment I make. To be robust and clear from the evidence of, sadly, how many people die on our motorways, they are the safest form of road, but they should be safer”.

This follows the news that Highways England could be found responsible for corporate manslaughter over the death of a passenger on a stretch of Smart Motorway in South Yorkshire.

Smart motorways were designed to deal with congestion by increasing capacity and controlling the speed on motorways. All Lane Running (ALR) smart motorways are to be the most dangerous of the three smart motorway designs, by campaigners who have labelled them as ‘death traps’ because broken down vehicles can end up stranded in live lanes.

Chair of the Transport Committee Huw Merriman MP said, “The Department for Transport says Smart Motorways help us cope with a 23% rise in traffic since 2000, helping congestion. The Department’s own Stocktake report points to lower fatal casualty rates for smart motorways without a permanent hard shoulder than on motorways with a hard shoulder. The serious casualty rate is slightly higher.

“This message isn’t reaching the public, whose confidence in smart motorways has been dented by increasing fatalities on these roads. Road safety charities are also expressing concerns. Will enhanced safety measures help? Will the public accept them following an awareness campaign? Or should there be a rethink of government policy?

“There are genuine worries about this element of the motorway network and we want to investigate how we got to this point.”

We at Marshall Leasing are always supportive of any plans to improve road safety, and trust that you find this information useful. If you would like to find out more about how our team of experts can assist with your fleet requirements, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by emailing info@marshall-leasing.co.uk or calling 01480 414541.

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