National Highways’ Director of Road Safety has reportedly written a letter admitting that the risk to broken-down drivers on conventional motorways is lower than on smart motorways.

The Daily Telegraph reports that, in response to comments from a coroner about the death of a man on a smart motorway, Sheena Hague, has written saying: “The risk of a collision and the risk of a serious injury or death due to a stopped vehicle collision is lowest on conventional and controlled motorways.”

The paper says she added that “the risk of a collision between a moving and a stopped vehicle is greater on ALR and dynamic hard shoulder motorways than on the other motorway types, but the risk of a collision involving only moving vehicles is lower.”

The report explains that this was in response to a letter written in April by Anne Pember, senior coroner for Northamptonshire, who wrote to National Highways warning that All Lane Running motorways mean “there is nowhere… to park safely” if there is a breakdown.

The Telegraph also quotes a National Highways spokesman saying: “The latest published data shows that, overall, in terms of serious or fatal casualties, smart motorways are our safest roads,” but that “the lack of public confidence” in them has meant new smart motorways had been cancelled, adding that £900 million of improvements to the network were being rolled out.

(Picture – National Highways)