Smart motorways: Stop scheme before 'any more deaths', South Yorkshire police chief urges PM in letter

During the Tory leadership race in September, Rishi Sunak pledged to ban new ‘all lanes running’ motorways from being built – but now, a month into his premiership, his Transport Secretary Mark Harper has failed to rule out the controversial schemes.

Now, South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, has reportedly urged the PM not to U-turn on the ban, labelling smart motorways as “inherently dangerous” according to the Daily Mail. The national newspaper claims the plea came in a private letter from the police chief to Mr Sunak.

He reportedly wrote: “I have consistently said that I believe they are inherently dangerous and we should be designing danger out of roads not building new hazards in.”

He added he was “encouraged by the opposition to smart motorways that the Prime Minister expressed” and “hoped this has not changed.”

“I write, therefore, to urge you to look again at these motorways and would welcome a response from you which says you will do this,” the letter reportedly reads.

“We do not want to have any more deaths where our coroners conclude that the want of a hard shoulder is a contributory factor.”

Smart motorways are designed to open up an extra lane on routes like the M1 by removing the hard shoulder and using technology and real-time overhead signs to warn drivers of accidents. Sheffield has seen multiple deaths linked to smart motorways in recent years.

In September 2018, Nargis Begum, 62, died after the Nissan Qashqai she and her husband were travelling in broke down. When they couldn’t access the hard shoulder, they exited the vehicle to wait for help. It was then another car hit their Qashqai, causing it to knock Nargis down and killing her.In 2019, Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, died after a crash on the M1 and they were hit by a lorry. Jason’s wife, Claire Mercer, from Rotherham is the founder of the Smart Motorways Kill Facebook page and continues to campaign against the scheme.

In April, the Crown Prosecution service ruled that National Highways did not have to answer any charges for corporate manslaughter over deaths on smart motorways.