Royal Navy chief fears UK's smart motorways are unsafe after fatal crash probe

Admiral Lord Alan West hit out at projects to modernise Britain’s ageing motorways.

His comments came during a debate at the House of Lord assessing the safety of the new highway links.

The M27 is currently undergoing a multi-million conversion to become Britain’s newest smart motorway.

The roads have been criticised because they do not have a hard shoulder and drivers who break down can be trapped in the speeding traffic.

An investigation by the BBC in January revealed 38 people had been killed on smart motorways in the last five years.

Lord West said: ‘My Lords, speaking as a simple sailor, it seems amazing to me that we call this smart.

‘We have a road on which cars go along at about 70 miles per hour. If your car goes wrong, you stop in that road where cars are doing 70 miles per hour. I cannot see how that is smart when quite often there is no large gap where you can pull over.

‘I would certainly not feel very happy if my car broke down – luckily it does not do that very often – having to stop on the inside lane of a motorway where traffic is belting along at 70 miles per hour. It does not seem very smart.’