Serious concerns have been raised about the decision to allow the hard shoulders of a section of motorway to be used during busy periods following statistics showing the number of deaths on hard shoulders.

Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, Bob Russell, who has campaigned on road safety issues, uncovered the latest available statistics showing 33 people were killed in crashes on hard shoulders in 2002 and 2003.

Mr Russell said:

"Hard shoulders have been provided on motorways as a place for broken down vehicles to stop in relative safety, but even so there have been deaths.

"I consider it grossly irresponsible for the Government to even experiment with using hard shoulders for moving traffic. They are putting people’s lives at risk."

"Putting to one side the observation that the Government is not sure whether ten or 11 people were killed in 2003 in crashes on the hard shoulder, the stark fact is that a deliberate decision to use hard shoulders for moving traffic is not in the interests of road safety and is likely to increase - not decrease - the number of crashes, injuries and deaths.

"This is a grossly irresponsible action."