The grieving widow of a man killed on a smart motorway has today blasted the Transport Secretary’s ‘offensive’ safety plans to improve the controversial roads.
An 18-point safety plan was announced today to keep the roads running across the UK despite 38 deaths in five years.
Jason Mercer was killed just 15 minutes after saying goodbye to his wife Claire after a HGV ploughed into him as he exchanged details with Alexandru Murgeanu on the M1 near Sheffield last June.
Claire said the new plan for the roads was a ‘range of compromises’ and that the changes ‘didn’t go far enough’.
Another victim included eight-year-old Dev Naran who died on the M6 when his grandfather’s car was struck by a lorry on the hard shoulder.
His mother Meera has previously said his death was preventable and urged officials to revisit the system.
But transport secretary Grant Shapps today insisted smart motorways are safe but admitted that more could be done to ‘raise the bar on smart motorway safety’ and his ‘action plan’ would deliver improvements.
Jason Mercer was killed just 15 minutes after saying goodbye to his wife Claire (both pictured) when a HGV ploughed into him as he exchanged details with another driver. Claire today said the new plans were ‘offensive’
The mother of eight-year-old Dev Naran (left with mother Meera Naran), from Leicestershire, who was killed on the M6 when his grandfather’s Toyota Yaris was struck by an HGV, said the government had to restore the hard shoulders until they could find a way to make them safe
Campaigners had piled the pressure on the government to change the way smart motorways operate amid concerns the lack of a hard shoulder puts broken down motorists at risk of harm
The government has been under intense pressure to change the way the roads work amid fears that the lack of a hard shoulder puts too many broken down motorists in harm’s way.
Mr Shapps said the latest evidence ‘shows that in most ways smart motorways are as safe as or safer than conventional ones’.
This afternoon Claire said she had believed the government was taking campaigners seriously until now.
‘I think it’s a whole range of compromises, it doesn’t go far enough at all.
‘I had half a hope that the government was starting to take us seriously, but this is just offensive.
Grant Shapps, pictured in Downing Street yesterday, has insisted smart motorways are safe but they will be overhauled
Jason Mercer, 44, was killed when a lorry ploughed into him after he pulled over to exchange contact details with another driver
Alexandru Murgeanu (pictured), 22, was exchanging details with Mr Mercer when he was also mown down and killed on the M1 near Sheffield last June
‘Grant Shapps actually rang me last night to run the proposals past me and I think he was hoping I would say ok to them so he could say I had rubber-stamped it.
‘But I absolutely do not approve of the plans, I’m very angry about them.
‘I got 15 minutes of bluster from him before I stopped him and asked for an idiot’s guide to the points.
‘He thinks he can smooth this over and he is trying to do a PR job, but it won’t work.’
Statistics published by the government in January revealed 38 people have been killed on smart motorways in the last five years.
There are currently more than 20 sections of ‘smart motorways’ on seven different motorways
New measures will include introducing more places to stop in an emergency and faster roll-out of a radar-based system to detect broken down vehicles.
But Claire added that the new measure would be even more reliant on artificial intelligence, which she said had been the problem with the roads in the first place.
‘My husband was killed within six minutes.
‘It doesn’t change the fact that we need the hard shoulder back.
‘If there had been a hard shoulder on the M1 that day, my husband and a 22-year-old man would still be alive.
‘They had to rely on a helicopter to try to get to the scene because an ambulance could not get though the traffic.
‘Once there is an accident, emergency vehicles just can’t get through.
‘These roads are costing lives.’
Mr Shapps today published the findings of an ‘evidence stock take’ he commissioned in October 2019.
The report stated that the risk of a collision between moving vehicles is lower on smart motorways because technology is installed to smooth traffic flow.
But the chances of a crash involving a moving vehicle and a stationary vehicle is higher when the hard shoulder is removed.
Mr Shapps said: ‘I’ve been greatly concerned by a number of deaths on smart motorways, and moved by the accounts of families who’ve lost loved ones in these tragic incidents.
‘I commissioned an urgent stocktake of smart motorways to provide a clearer picture of their safety and make recommendations on next steps. I envisaged it to be swift, but during the course of our investigations a complex picture emerged – which warranted further work.
‘That work has now concluded and overall, evidence shows that in most ways smart motorways are as safe as or safer than conventional ones.
‘But I am clear that there is more we can do to raise the bar on smart motorway safety.
‘The extended package of measures I have set out will help rebuild public confidence in our motorway network and ensure that safety is firmly at the heart of the programme.’
Jim O’Sullivan, chief executive of Highways England, which manages England’s motorways and major A roads, said: ‘Every death in any road accident is tragic, and we are determined to do all we can to make our roads as safe as possible.
‘We will be taking forward the measures the Secretary of State for Transport has set out, and we will be improving further our information to drivers to help them be safer on all of our roads, including our smart motorway network.’
The ‘action plan’ creates a new standard for the spacing of emergency refuge areas (ERAs), which are designed for vehicles that need to stop when there is no hard shoulder.
The ERAs had been installed every 1.5 miles but now the distance between them will be slashed to every 0.75 miles.
The use of a radar-based stopped vehicle detection (SVD) system will be rolled out on all smart motorways without a hard should over the next three years.
SVD is specifically designed to detect stationary vehicles, typically within 20 seconds.
This leads to a message being automatically displayed on overhead gantries and a control room operator being alerted.
Edmund King, AA president, said: ‘For the last decade we have been campaigning to improve the design and safety of smart motorways.
‘The measures announced by the Transport Secretary today are a victory for common sense and safety.’
He added: ‘The fact that 38 per cent of breakdowns happen in live lanes on smart motorways means drivers have been at risk.
‘Tragically people have lost their lives, and in some cases coroners have indicated this could have been avoided.
‘No driver wants to be stuck in a live lane with nowhere to go; at best it is incredibly distressing, at worst it can be fatal.’
What are the three types of ‘smart’ motorways and how do they work?
All lane running schemes permanently remove the hard shoulder and convert it into a running lane.
On these types of motorway, lane one (formerly the hard shoulder) is only closed to traffic in the event of an incident.
In this case a lane closure will be signalled by a red X on the gantry above, meaning you must exit the lane as soon as possible.
All running lane motorways also have overhead gantry signs that display the mandatory speed limit.
Should drivers break down or be involved in an accident there are emergency refuge areas at the side of the carriageway for them to use.
Controlled motorways have three or more lanes with variable speed limits, but retains a hard shoulder. The hard shoulder should only be used in a genuine emergency.
These variable speed limits are displayed on overhead gantry signs – if no speed limit is displayed the national speed limit is in place. Speed cameras are used to enforce these.
‘Dynamic’ hard shoulder running involves open the hard shoulder as a running lane to traffic at busy periods to ease congestion.
On these stretches a solid white line differentiates the hard shoulder from the normal carriageway. Overhead signs on gantries indicate whether or not the hard shoulder is open to traffic.
The hard shoulder must not be used if the signs over it are blank or display a red X, except in the case of an emergency.
A red X on the gantry above means you must exit the lane as soon as possible.
Overhead gantries on these types of motorway also display the mandatory speed limit which varies depending on the traffic conditions. Speed cameras are used to enforce these – no speed limit displayed indicates the national speed limit is in place.
Source: RAC