Call to scrap All Lane Running as smart motorway deaths rise

Deaths on smart motorways have hit a record high, analysis by the Sunday Times has revealed.

According to data from the national road accidents database, there were 24 deaths on smart motorways during 2022 - the last year for which full figures are available.

There were also 12 deaths in the first half of last year according to the provisional data.

This compares with 15 deaths on smart motorways in 2021, based on figures from National Highways.

Of the 24 deaths in 2022, 14 were on motorways without a hard shoulder. These all lane running schemes (ALR) are one of three types of smart motorway, so called because they have technology to smooth out traffic flow and detect incidents.

The other types are dynamic hard shoulder, which uses the hard shoulder as a running lane at busy times, and controlled motorways, which always have a hard shoulder.

New piece for the @thetimes looking into smart motorways and why victims and campaigners want hard shoulders to be permanently restored as deaths continue to rise https://t.co/VjwiDcGipH pic.twitter.com/95yb92ZLs4

— George Willoughby (@GWJournalism) April 21, 2024

Conservative MP Karl McCartney, a member of the Transport Select Committee who was briefly a transport minister in 2022, told the Sunday Times: ‘All-lane running motorways and the removal of hard shoulders are a death trap. It is common sense that scrapping hard shoulders will lead to more accidents and injuries.

‘However, common sense and human lives are of little interest to the bean-counting civil servants at the Department for Transport, the Treasury and National Highways.

‘Their sole reason for scrapping hard shoulders is to save money, not lives. It is cheaper to remove hard shoulders than build more lanes or motorways. It was never good enough for the Government to scrap plans to create more. The existing ones should go.’

Sheena Hague, National Highways’ director of road safety, said: ‘Safety is our number one priority, and every decision we take has the wellbeing of those using the strategic road network at its heart.’