Transport Secretary '100% committed' to improving smart motorway safety
Criticism's grown over the roads, sparked by the deaths of two men in South Yorkshire
Last updated 25th Jan 2021
After growing criticism of the safety of smart motorways, The Transport Secretary tells us he's 100% committed to sorting them out.
A coroner last week said the lack of a hard shoulder on the M1 in South Yorkshire contributed to the deaths of two men who stopped in a live lane and were hit by a lorry in 2019.
That led to South Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner writing to the Transport Secretary calling for so-called 'all lane running' smart motorways to be completely scrapped.
We put the concerns to Grant Shapps - who told us he's already taking action:
"Ever since I became Secretary of State 18 months ago I've had my own concerns about smart motorways and I've acted. What I did was to carry out a stock take to understand what's really going on.
"It had an 18 point plan which has gone into action including hundreds of millions of pounds to much improve the performance of our motorways and so-called smart motorways as well.
"So I'm absolutely 100% committed to getting these motorways sorted out. There are always accidents on motorways. Sadly there've always been fatalaties on motorways. I think we can do better on all our motorways and that's what that plan is going to do."
But it's not good enough for Claire Mercer.
Her husband Jason was one of the two men killed on the M1 whose inquests were held last week.
He and Alexandru Muguanu had a minor crash on the road and pulled over in a live lane to exchange details because there was no hard shoulder.
They were there for less than six minutes before a lorry hit them from behind killing both men.
We played Grant Shapp's response to the growing criticism to Claire and she wasn't impressed:
"A lot of flannel and a whole lot of talking about no action. That's basically what the action plan was. Quoting billions of pounds here - how much is your other half worth? How much is your child worth? I'd find a way to raise a billion pounds if it'd bring Jason back.
"He started his excuse with I've been the Transport Minister for 18 months so he's starting with an excuse of they were here before me. But he's Secretary of State for Transport so they are his problem.
"This is why I want to meet Grant Shapps. I've spoken to him on the phone twice and I'm not rude but I'm direct. And he actually said that I give him a difficult time but I'm sorry but I think that's part of his job."
Last Monday a coroner ruled that Jason and Alexandru were unlawfully killed and that the lack of a hard shoulder contributed to their deaths.
David Urpeth said he'd write to Grant Shapps about it as the thinks "smart motorways, as things currently stand, present an ongoing risk of future deaths".
Claire's been running a campaign called Smart Motorways Kill ever since her husband's death, calling for the roads to be scrapped altogether.
She says the ruling of the coroner has given it a real boost:
"The really good, and correct but unexpected, ruling of unlawful killing really grabbed attention. We were slowly gathering momentum anyway but this has made a big difference.
"I'm not going to give in until we get the hard shoulder back. I keep getting asked when this will finish - it will finish when we get the hard shoulder back."
The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says he will meet with Highways England this week to discuss their progress on improving smart motorway safety.