Labour has once again demanded the Government take action on smart
motorways to prevent more fatalities, after it emerged Highways
England could face charges over the death of a woman.
During Transport Questions in the Commons last month , the Transport Secretary, was called on by Labour’s
to “commit, the minute this session finishes, to pick
up the phone and to issue the instruction to re-instate the hard
shoulder on smart motorways because god forbid we’ll be here
again reviewing more deaths if action isn’t taken”.
It followed a coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Jason Mercer,
44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, on a smart motorway in 2019.
McMahon, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, has written to the
Government to ask again for the hard shoulder on smart motorways
to be reinstated while promised safety reviews are ongoing.
Ends
Notes to editors:
The full text of the letter:
Dear Grant,
I am writing to you regarding smart motorways, following our
exchange in the House.
You’ll know 38 people have been killed on smart motorways in the
last five years. It was revealed last week that on one section of
the M25, outside London, the number of near misses had risen
20-fold since the hard shoulder was removed in April 2014.
In the five years before the road was converted into a smart
motorway, there were just 72 near misses. In the five subsequent
years, there were 1,485.
Last month a Coroner concluded lack of hard shoulder on the M1 in
South Yorkshire contributed to the deaths of Jason Mercer and
Alexandru Murgeanu, and went further to say smart motorways
presented an ongoing risk of future deaths.
Even the former Roads Minister - your Conservative colleague
MP - who
introduced the programme in 2010, admitted that it was; “a gross
public policy failure”.
As I said in my question to you in the House last week, enough is
enough. It’s time for action and to immediately suspend the use
of the hard shoulder for driving traffic. I asked you whether you
would commit to that now, before more lives are lost.
In your reply, you said:
“Smart motorways were, and are, an issue that sparked a great
deal of interest from me, and as the Hon. Gentleman may recall,
before he was in post last year I set up a review, a stocktake,
which recommended 18 different measures, including spending more
than £500 million to put in a whole series of measures to ensure
that smart motorways are not just as safe, but safer than
conventional motorways.
“That stocktake is now one year through, and I will soon return
to the House to report on its progress. I know there is a lot of
interest in that.”
I’m glad you accept it’s an issue that needs addressing. But your
reply leaves a number of unanswered questions:
· Why has the review taken so long to report when lives are at
stake?
· Why did you not suspend smart motorways whilst the review was
being undertaken?
· How many victims’ families has the review spoken to and who are
you speaking to make your conclusion?
· When will the review report?
· In light of all the information that’s been presented,
including excellent reporting by journalists, what more evidence
do you need to make a decision?
How many more people must die before you will make a decision and
immediately suspend the use of the hard shoulder for driving
traffic?
Yours sincerely,
Jim
