UK rollout of smart motorway safety tech brought forward theiet.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theiet.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Press Association 2021
A measure aimed at boosting smart motorway safety will be completed ahead of schedule, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced (Martin Rickett/PA)
A measure aimed at boosting smart motorway safety will be completed ahead of schedule, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced.
The Cabinet minister told MPs that radar technology to detect drivers who break down in live lanes will be rolled out across the entire network by the end of next year.
A deadline of March 2023 was included in an action plan launched by Mr Shapps in March 2020.
Highways England figures show the Stopped Vehicle Detection (SVD) upgrade has so far only been installed on three sections, totalling 37 miles out of the 500-mile smart motorway network.
Two thirds of Britons think smart motorways are less safe than normal ones with hard shoulders and 57 per cent of people are opposed to their use entirely, a YouGov poll has revealed.
The latest findings come just days after Dr Alan Billings, Police Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, wrote to the Government saying the abolition of the hard shoulder should be abandoned before more people die, branding them inherently unsafe .
The poll found 64 per cent of Brits agree with Dr Billings s claims that smart motorways are not as safe, while only seven per cent believed they were safer.
Thirty-eight people have been killed on smart motorways over a five-year period, the BBC reported last year.