Drivers are three times more likely to be fatally or seriously injured following breakdowns on motorways with no hard shoulder, according to latest stats released by National Highways.
Overall, the rates for so-called KSI incidents, where car occupants are killed or seriously injured, has risen by 10 per cent on ‘smart motorways’ without a permanent hard shoulder.
The figures, released as part of the National Highways annual report into the smart motorway programme, show that from 2017 to 2021 there were 0.07 serious injuries per billion miles driven on roads dubbed ‘controlled smart motorways’ which retain the hard shoulder. ‘All-lane running’ routes where the hard shoulder has been permanently done away with to create more space for traffic, have a figure of 0.21 serious casualties - a number that’s three times greater.
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