Smart motorways plan aims to boost safety

Announcing the plan to improve smart motorway safety, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he had been "Greatly concerned by a number of deaths on smart motorways, and moved by the accounts of families who've lost loved ones in these tragic incidents". "The overall evidence shows that in most ways smart motorways are as safe or safer than conventional ones - but they are not in every way," he said. Labour MP Sarah Champion said the proposals did not "Go far enough" and called on the government to restore smart motorways "To traditional operation". Smart motorways were introduced with the aim of increasing capacity and easing congestion by using the hard shoulder as an extra lane. Responding to his comments, Highways England said the plans to expand smart motorways were approved by ministers and that it was working to gather the facts about safety.

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