The Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, Dr Alan Billings has written an open letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, The Right Hon Grant Shapps MP, and Highways England, calling for smart motorways where all lanes are live, such as that along part of the M1 in South Yorkshire, to be abandoned before more lives are lost.

This follows the findings of Coroner David Urpeth this week into two deaths on the motorway. He concluded that the fact that there was no hard shoulder had contributed to their deaths.

Dr Alan Billings said : “I have written to the Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP and Highways England to call for them to abandon smart motorways.

“Even before the Coroner verdicts in the inquests into the tragic deaths of Jason Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu – which found that no hard shoulder on the M1 in South Yorkshire contributed to both deaths – I had met with Highways England to express my view that these motorways are anything but smart.

“Surely now, they cannot ignore our safety concerns.”