Warning as drivers are three times more likely to be killed or injured on smart motorways without a hard shoulder
SMART motorways without a hard shoulder are three times more likely to kill or injure drivers, a new study has found.
The report by National Highways shows the rate of incidents has increased since their hard shoulders were removed.
Fourteen of the 80 smart motorway deaths in England in 2021 happened on sections without a permanent hard shoulder.
National Highways' report found the number of casualties after a stopped vehicle was hit by a moving one was 0.21 per 100 million vehicle miles travelled on smart motorways between 2017 and 2021.
That compares with rates of 0.07 on controlled smart motorways, which have variable speed limits but retain a hard shoulder, and 0.10 on conventional motorways.
There have been long-standing safety fears following fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes were hit from behind.
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In April, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the cancellation of planned projects to build all-lane running (ALR) smart motorways, which use the hard shoulder as a live traffic lane.
He said this was due to cost pressures and a lack of confidence among some road users.
But he has refused to reinstate the hard shoulder on existing smart motorways.
National Highways announced on Thursday that extra emergency stopping areas will be installed on 11 smart motorway sections.
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This is part of a £900 million investment aimed at improving the network by 2025.
The company's chief executive, Nick Harris, said: "The majority of collisions on our network involve moving vehicles.
"The minority involve stopped vehicles and the risk of this continues to be higher on motorways without a permanent hard shoulder.
"Most of the interventions we are making such as introducing stopped vehicle detection and enabling increased enforcement of Red X signals, are designed to reduce the risk of a collision between a moving and a stopped vehicle.
"It remains too early to see the impact of the actions we have delivered, as they were largely completed in 2022.
"But we continue to monitor the impact of the actions.";
AA president Edmund King added that the fundamental problem remains that stopped vehicle incidents are more frequent on ALR smart motorways compared to motorways with hard shoulders.
"Reinstating the hard shoulder should be the aim of every political party if politicians really want to promote motoring-friendly policies.
"It will be safer and much smarter. Just do it."