Smart motorways: National Highways respond to danger claims

NATIONAL Highways has responded to claims that smart motorways are more dangerous than other motorways.

In 2024, the number of incidents recorded on smart motorways was 141,149 compared to 110,299 on conventional motorways, according to a recent FOI request.

This is despite smart motorways covering only 20 per cent of England's motorway network.

However, National Highways has refuted claims that smart motorways are more dangerous than conventional motorways, stating that statistics are not a reliable indicator of smart motorway safety.

Smart motorways are a cost-saving technique of expanding motorway capacity by turning the hard shoulder into an active lane which is regularly monitored by cameras so the lane can be shut to traffic in case of an emergency.

In Worcestershire, there are 11 miles of smart motorway between Junction 4a (M42) and Junction 6 (Worcester/Pershore) of the M5.

Like most smart motorways, this stretch has no hard shoulder and emergency refuges every mile for drivers to stop in if they have an urgent issue.

Smart motorways have come under criticism from many road users including Worcester tattoo artist Jack Gallowtree, who was badly injured when trying to reach a safe location after his bike's engine failed while riding on the M6 in 2022.

He said: "They took a skin flap from my arm to transplant the hole in my leg, otherwise it would have been amputated.

"There was a problem with the healing on my arm so I almost lost the arm as well so smart motorways almost cost me an arm and a leg, literally."

A spokesperson for National Highways said: "Unlike other road, smart motorways have technology in place to identify stopped vehicles, including breakdowns.

"This means that more breakdowns are identified on smart motorways compared to other road types.

"Our latest analysis continues to show that overall, smart motorways remain our safest roads.

"We have upgraded the technology to detect stopped vehicles, improved response times to live lane breakdowns and installed more than 150 additional emergency areas, giving people a place to pull over if they break down."