Major safety targets “are likely to be missed” this year as the number of people killed or seriously injured on UK roads continues to grow.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) published its third annual assessment of safety performance which found that National Highways will be unlikely to halve the number of road-related incidents on its network.
The report also highlighted significant technology failures on smart motorways, including a four-week outage of safety systems on the M62 and performance issues with stopped vehicle detection technology on multiple sections of motorway.
There were 1,913 people killed or seriously injured on motorways and major A-roads in 2023, 26 fewer than in 2022.
This represents the lowest figure ever recorded outside the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, despite traffic increasing by 2.2 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
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Labour hoped to reduce road casualties by 50 per cent this year
OFFICE OF RAIL AND ROAD
To meet its target, National Highways would need to reduce casualties by a further 356 people by the end of 2025, which the ORR considers “improbable”.
On the M62 between junctions 10-11, the motorway incident detection automatic signalling system suffered an outage lasting 28 days, eight hours and four minutes.
Testing of stopped vehicle detection technology on 12 stretches of smart motorway found four schemes failed to meet detection rate targets, one missed false discovery rate targets, and two failed to achieve average detection time requirements.
Meanwhile, two sections of the M1 (J13-J15 and J13-J16) failed detection rate targets in consecutive years, with rates of 74 per cent and 69 per cent respectively against the 80 per cent target.
National Highways has been installing an additional 151 emergency areas on all lane running smart motorways, with up to 43 per cent of the network affected by traffic management.
During the roadworks, much of the technology that supports safety was switched off to avoid interference from construction activities.
But National Highways implemented mitigation measures during construction, including reduced speed limits, wider cone spacing, and dedicated 24/7 CCTV coverage.
The ORR’s director of performance and planning, Feras Alshaker, said: “It is a good thing that safety continues to improve on the strategic road network, and we should recognise the work that National Highways has been doing to improve safety on its roads.”
AA president Edmund King was more critical, stating that the data released by National Highways shows that several sections of all lane running on the M1 have a higher KSI rate now “than before the loss of the hard shoulder”.
“It is time to accept so-called ‘smart’ motorways have failed and side with the majority of drivers who want the reinstatement of the hard shoulder,” he said.
IAM RoadSmart’s Nicholas Lyes noted that “the rate of fatal and serious collisions involving stopped vehicles is almost double that of both a conventional motorway.”
National Highways stated that budget cuts have affected planned communication campaigns, with the company’s overall communications budget halved.
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Nick Harris, National Highways chief executive, said the company has completed all actions set out in the 2020 smart motorway stocktake, including installing more than 700 additional signs and upgrading enforcement cameras.
