Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the safety of smart motorways; how many fatal accidents have occurred on smart motorways since their introduction; and what guidance has been issued to motorists who break down on smart motorways and who are unable to reach a refuge area.

The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, published by the Department in March 2020, provides a table in Annex D, page 76, showing the number of reported fatal casualties between 2015 and 2018. This is reproduced here:

Sources: 1 - STATS19, Highways England Statistics on motorway fatal casualties in England from 2015-18. 2 - STATS19, DfT Statistics on fatal casualties on the Strategic Road Network in England from 2015-18

The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan also took account of the fact that different types of roads carry different quantities of traffic. It found that the fatal casualty rate (per hundred million vehicle miles) over the period 2015-2018 was lower on controlled (0.07), Dynamic Hard Shoulder (0.07) and All Lane Running (0.11) motorways than conventional motorways (0.16).

The latest strategic safety evidence, which includes data for 2019, will be published as part of the one-year stocktake progress update report which will be published shortly.

Highways England recently launched a national public information campaign to help drivers know what to do in a breakdown on motorways. Its main message informs drivers that if you breakdown, ‘go left’. Guidance is also contained in the Highway Code. Improvements to this guidance is currently out to public consultation (closing date for responses 29 March 2021). https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.com/he/highway-code/.