Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of Smart Motorways on the number of fatalities caused by a collision.
One year on from the publication of the Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan, National Highways (formerly Highways England) published a report which shows that in terms of fatality rates, smart motorways are the safest roads in the country. Per mile travelled, fatal casualty rates are a third higher on conventional motorways (0.16 per hundred million vehicle miles, hmvm) than on All Lane Running (ALR) motorways (0.12 per hmvm). Per mile travelled, fatal casualty rates on strategic road network A-roads (0.44 per hmvm) are more than three and a half times the rate on ALR motorways.