The deadly toll of smart motorways is revealed for the first time today in a Daily Mail audit that shows the roads have been blamed for at least 18 deaths since 2015.
Bereaved families are demanding the controversial rollout be reversed and say their loved ones would still be alive had the Government not ignored safety warnings.
One grieving widow claimed the ‘cost-saving’ scheme was ‘murdering’ motorists, while Labour has demanded ministers ‘stop more lives being lost’.
Dev Naran with his mum Meera Naran. The eight year olf died when a lorry hit his grandfather's car on the hard shoulder
The deadly toll of smart motorways is revealed for the first time today in a Daily Mail audit
Undated Family Handout photo of Mohammed Bashir and his wife Nargis Begum who died on a smart motorway on the M1 in South Yorkshire
The Mail’s findings lay bare the human cost of the roads, which use the hard shoulder as a live lane to improve traffic flow. Ministers insist they are safer than conventional motorways, but there are fears the removal of a crucial refuge for stricken drivers is putting lives at risk.
Official data shows there were 53 deaths on smart motorways between 2015 and 2019, however the figures do not explain the cause of accidents.
The Mail’s audit, which includes coroners’ reports, Freedom of Information requests and local newspaper cuttings, reveals 18 fatalities since 2015 have been at least partly blamed on the smart motorway itself.
The remaining fatalities are attributed to human error or accidents, but campaigners believe smart motorways could be to blame for the majority of deaths because the lack of a hard shoulder can make it more difficult for ambulances to reach the scene of an accident.
In one case in which two motorists were killed, an air ambulance crew was forced to land on an adjacent field before making their way to the crash site.
Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, praised the Mail for ‘shining a light’ on cases where ‘the design of “smart” motorways raises questions over whether the collision could have been avoided if the hard shoulder remained’. Previously the motoring association had put the death toll at 14.
Sally Jacobs lost her husband Derek, 83, in 2019 when a burst tyre forced him to pull over on the M1 near Sheffield and his car
