On my Transport Insights blog I note that the draft third Road Investment Strategy makes no commitment to improving smart motorway safety, for example by adding emergency areas where the current spacing is longer than the official standard. transportinsights.blog/2025/08/28/d...
I suggest that Labour is happy to see more deaths on smart motorways, such as that of Kevin O'Reilly in 2023, where the coroner raised concerns about emergency area spacing and National Highways said it was not funded to fix the problem, beyond the NEAR retrofit programme, which finished in March.
I also note on a further post that a Mr O'Reilly's death highlights problems with both the spacing of emergency areas on smart motorways and over-reliance on technology. transportinsights.blog/2025/08/28/s...
In this case the emergency areas were officially too far apart (with no prospect of a fix) while the stopped vehicle detection worked as well as could be expected - just not well enough to save Mr O'Reilly's life. transportinsights.blog/2025/08/28/s...