'˜People will die' vows ex-police officer as he warns council leader about backing M27 smart motorwayÂ

Andy Snow has seen his fair share of accidents and close calls on roads and smart motorways during his time as an officer and told Fareham Borough Council leader, Councillor Sean Woodward about his worries.

The 61-year-old said: '˜I have experienced these accidents and my colleague was nearly hit on the M60 smart motorway. These schemes are not safe and people will die.

'˜The M27 at rush hour is extremely busy and if you break down at 8.30am in the third lane there is no hard shoulder and it will be extremely dangerous and I told Sean Woodward this previously.'

The £1.5bn scheme by Highways England will see the hard shoulder, from Junction 4 to Junction 11 for Fareham, converted into an extra lane with technology to manage the flow of traffic and reduce congestion.

It comes as a group of cross-party MPs say smart motorway schemes should be halted due to no hard shoulder putting motorists and road workers at risk.

Andy said: '˜I have gone back to Cllr Woodward with this and he said he has spoken with Highways England and they are going ahead with the scheme.

'˜It seems ludicrous to me as this flies in the face of what people from the government are saying.'

Mr Snow said figures from the MPs' report showed there were 16 crashes last year on the 100 miles of '˜all-lanes running' smart motorway already built while there were 29 similar crashes with vehicles parked on the hard shoulder on the rest of the 1,800-mile road network in England.

He added: '˜This just shows in statistics how dangerous these roads are and all M27 road users will know how many accidents we have already and this will only increase.

'˜At the end of the day this scheme is to enable Mr Woodward's Welborne to come to fruition because the motorway junction needs upgrading before the 20,000 or so cars from the development descend on the motorway.

'˜This is putting a price on human life.'

Cllr Woodward said: '˜I have no more decision-making power to ignore or otherwise than Mr Snow or indeed Tracey Crouch MP.

'˜The Smart Motorway project on the M27 and M3 is one I have campaigned for over many years.  It will lead to a 33 per cent increase in capacity and improve journey times which should also become more predictable.

'˜Highways England, which operates the motorway network, says the technology used on smart motorways makes journeys more reliable and insists they are as safe as traditional motorways. 

'˜The important thing is that motorists comply with lane closures which will improve everyone's safety.'

The AA previously raised safety concerns over the '˜all-lanes running' scheme.

Jack Cousens said: '˜The trade-off is that you have laybys called emergency refuge areas and the problem with them we think is that they are too far apart at 2km and we would prefer a kilometre to a kilometre and a half apart.'

A Highways England spokesman said: '˜Smart motorways are good for drivers '“ they add extra lanes giving extra space so more people can travel, they use technology which makes journeys more reliable and evidence proves they are as safe as traditional motorways, which are already among the safest roads in the world.

'˜Feedback from road users show the majority feel confident driving on a smart motorway, and that they are safer and improve journey times.

'˜We recognise that as well as being safe, drivers want to feel safe and we have and will continue to make some changes to the design of motorways.

'˜This includes making emergency areas more visible; introducing systems that detect stationary vehicles; and raising awareness of the need to comply with lane closures.

'˜For future schemes we will be reducing the maximum space between emergency areas to one mile, where practical.'