Labour is launching a campaign to bring back hard shoulders on motorways after at least 38 deaths were blamed on their removal.
Transport spokesman Jim McMahon wants the fourth lane of smart motorways closed by Grant Shapps.
Mr McMahon said: “All the Transport Secretary has to do is pick up the phone to Highways England to get hard shoulders reinstated.”
It would only need the red X closure sign in the nearside lane switched on for a new hard shoulder to be created until more permanent ones can be rebuilt.
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Sally Jacobs, 83, blames the lack of one on the M1 in Derbyshire for the death of husband Derek, 83, two years ago.
A car hit him after his van got a puncture. then an ambulance took an hour to get to him because there was no hard shoulder to let it bypass traffic.
Mrs Jacobs said: “Smart motorways should be called killer motorways. Everyone knows people are being killed and no one is doing anything about it. It’s not manslaughter, it’s murder.”
Last month a coroner referred Highways England to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider charges of corporate manslaughter over the death of Nargis Begum, 62, on the M1 in 2018.
Hard shoulders began to be removed in 2014 and now nearly 500 miles of the M1, M6 and M25 are without them.
Another 300 miles of smart M-ways , monitored by radar and cameras, are due to be rolled out by 2025.
A red X sign closes a lane to traffic when vehicles break down or have an accident but the RAC says it can take 20 minutes to switch them on and then one in five drivers ignore them.
Orange painted SOS areas to pull off the road can be up to 1.5 miles apart and nearly four in ten breakdowns happen in live lanes leaving motorists stranded. Mr Shapps promised a safety review six weeks ago but it is yet to report back.
Mr McMahon added: “In the meantime, the Government must reinstate the hard shoulder before yet another family is left grieving.”
Highways England say smart M-ways have reduced hold-ups by 22 per cent.
'It's manslaughter to ditch hard shoulders'
Last Tuesday Claire Mercer put up a giant screen of husband Jason’s face outside South Yorkshire Police HQ on what would have been his 46th birthday.
Jason, 44, had a prang with Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, on a section of the M1 without a hard shoulder in June 2019.
As they spoke, a lorry hit them and both died instantly.
Sheffield coroner David Urpeth said the lack of hard shoulder contributed to their deaths and smart motorways “present a risk of future deaths”.
Claire, 44, of Rotherham, wants Highways England charged with with corporate manslaughter and thinks they were more to blame than trucker Prezemyslaw Szuba, who got 10 months.
“I didn’t know what a smart motorway was. I don’t know how they made if off the drawing board,” she said.
A highways spokesman said: “Although we do not believe Highways England has committed any offence we will of course cooperate fully in any investigation.”
