Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents involving (a) serious injury and (b) death occurred between Junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 in (i) each year since March 2017 and (ii) each of the three years before March 2017.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The number of fatal and serious reported road accidents between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 from 2014 to 2019 can be found in the table below.
Reported road accidents with a personal injury between junctions 32 and 35A on the M1¹ by severity, 2014 - 2019 | ||
Calendar year | Fatal accidents | Serious accidents |
2014 | 0 | 2 |
2015 | 1 | 2 |
2016 | 2 | 6 |
2017 | 1 | 4 |
2018 | 0 | 6 |
2019 | 1 | 5 |
Source: DfT, STATS19 | ||
1. does not include off ramps at junction 35a | ||
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents in which a vehicle was stranded in a live lane have taken place between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 in the three years prior to March 2017.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The table below records all breakdown incidents that have been recorded in a live lane between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1, in both directions in the three years prior to March 2017.
Month/Year | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
January | 11 | 6 | 65 | 42 |
February | 5 | 5 | 75 | 58 |
March | 10 | 4 | 80 | 51 |
April | 20 | 3 | 75 | 53 |
May | 8 | 15 | 79 | 63 |
June | 12 | 19 | 72 | 77 |
July | 15 | 23 | 62 | 67 |
August | 19 | 26 | 64 | 64 |
September | 13 | 27 | 59 | 49 |
October | 11 | 39 | 52 | 66 |
November | 17 | 55 | 45 | 71 |
December | 26 | 46 | 57 | 68 |
There has been significant interest in the number of live lane breakdowns on motorways. It is important to note that live lane breakdown data is not a reliable safety indicator to correlate with serious or fatal casualties.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many serious collisions involving vehicles being stranded in a live lane have taken place from (a) junction 32 to (b) junction 35A of the M1 since March 2017.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Between Junctions 32 and 35a of the M1, from March 2017 and up to 31 December 2019 (the latest period for which validated collision data is available), there was 1 collision which involved stationary[1] vehicles.
M1 J32-35a | 2017* | 2018 | 2019 |
Fatal and Serious collisions with stationary vehicles in a live lane | 0 | 0 | 1** |
* Assumed SM ALR opening is March 2017 ** 1 collision led to 2 casualties
[1] In the absence of a Stats19 collision data field that identifies whether a vehicle was broken down or stranded, the field ‘parked’ has been used as a proxy. This will indicate that the collision involved a vehicle that was stationary without offering commentary on the reasons for it being so.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many incidents in which a vehicle was stranded in a live lane have taken place between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 since March 2017.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published in March 2020 considered the number of breakdown incidents by Strategic Road Network (SRN) road type. At a national level, conventional motorways had on an average annual basis 129,991 breakdowns (over 2017-2018), while All Lane Running (ALR) motorways had a total of 22,963 breakdowns over the same period.
The table below records all breakdown incidents that have been recorded in a live lane between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1, in both directions.
Month/Year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
January |
| 70 | 59 | 75 | 81 |
February |
| 76 | 59 | 67 |
|
March | 51 | 102 | 69 | 40 |
|
April | 53 | 69 | 59 | 29 |
|
May | 63 | 88 | 81 | 32 |
|
June | 77 | 80 | 57 | 61 |
|
July | 67 | 82 | 83 | 80 |
|
August | 64 | 79 | 68 | 80 |
|
September | 49 | 74 | 63 | 66 |
|
October | 66 | 80 | 79 | 58 |
|
November | 71 | 93 | 75 | 62 |
|
December | 68 | 84 | 71 | 60 |
|
There has been significant interest in the number of live lane breakdowns on motorways. It is important to note that live lane breakdown data is not a reliable safety indicator to correlate with serious or fatal casualties.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many serious collisions occurred involving a vehicle in the hard shoulder between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 in the three years prior to March 2017.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
There were no serious or fatal reported road accidents involving a vehicle on, entering, or leaving a lay-by or hard shoulder between junctions 32 and 35A of the M1 between March 2014 and February 2017.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many additional smart motorway emergency refuges have (a) been constructed and (b) entered the design phase on the M1 since the publication of his Department's report entitled Smart Motorway Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published on 12 March 2020.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Since March 2020, six emergency areas have been constructed as part of the upgrade project between J13 and J16, which is currently in construction. These emergency areas will come into use when the first section of this project (Junction 13 to Newport Pagnell services) opens to traffic in Spring 2022. There are currently no other All Lane Running (ALR) upgrade schemes on other stretches of the M1 that have entered into design since March 2020.
The Government’s Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan asked Highways England to accelerate its plans and install stopped vehicle detection technology (SVD) on ALR motorways within the next 36 months. The roll out of SVD is planned across the network by March 2023. Page 29 of Highways England’s Delivery Plan 2020-25 sets out an indicative delivery programme over the years 2020-23 for each section of ALR motorway.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many miles of smart motorway on the M1 were covered by stopped vehicle detection technology in (a) March and (b) December 2020.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Since March 2020, six emergency areas have been constructed as part of the upgrade project between J13 and J16, which is currently in construction. These emergency areas will come into use when the first section of this project (Junction 13 to Newport Pagnell services) opens to traffic in Spring 2022. There are currently no other All Lane Running (ALR) upgrade schemes on other stretches of the M1 that have entered into design since March 2020.
The Government’s Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan asked Highways England to accelerate its plans and install stopped vehicle detection technology (SVD) on ALR motorways within the next 36 months. The roll out of SVD is planned across the network by March 2023. Page 29 of Highways England’s Delivery Plan 2020-25 sets out an indicative delivery programme over the years 2020-23 for each section of ALR motorway.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many additional smart motorway emergency refuges have (a) been constructed and (b) have entered the design phase since the publication of his Department's report entitled Smart Motorway Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published on 12 March 2020.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Since 12 March 2020, 10 additional emergency areas have been installed on the M25, in line with Action 5 of the Smart Motorway Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan. A further 27 emergency areas have been built as part of new upgrades currently in construction and which come into use as those projects open to traffic.
In March 2020, there were 23.86 miles of smart motorway covered by stopped vehicle detection (SVD) technology. At the end of December 2020, there will be 36.78 miles. This is in line with Highways England’s programme to install SVD on all existing all lane running (ALR) sections of the motorway network, by March 2023, which it is on course to achieve.