Former roads minister Mike Penning, who signed off on Britain's smart motorways has called for the scheme rollout to be halted immediately, accusing Highways England of killing motorists by “casually ignoring commitments” on safety systems. Penning, along with several MPs have published a report on the motorways, that allow motorists to drive on the hard shoulder to increase capacity.
The report suggests that the admission made by Highways England chief executive Jim O'Sullivan that radar technology could have saved lives was “a gross public policy failure and a damning indictment of the agency's on-the-hoof approach.” Made by the all-party parliamentary group on roadside rescue and recovery, the report described the recordings of 999 calls of motorists who had broken down in live lanes and were trapped in fast-moving traffic were “harrowing” and underscored that “many motorists don't know what to do in such situations.”
The report found that the proportion of smart motorway breakdowns that came to a halt in lanes of moving traffic was almost twice than that of normal motorways. It said that some recovery operators “knowing that many such stranded motorists have been killed or seriously injured... choose to put their vehicle between the stranded motorist and the oncoming traffic. This impulse is understandable... however, it is completely unacceptable for them to be put in this position.”
The MPs called for emergency refuge areas to be built every 800m, rather than the average spacing of 2500m in a bid to improve safety. Penning said the report's findings would be of “little succour to the families who are without loved ones today because of design faults in all lane running smart motorways.”
