No warning lights on smart motorway before death smash
THE failings of smart motorways were laid bare in court yesterday as a lorry driver was jailed for a ‘catastrophic’ accident that killed two men.
There were no warning signs, even though a car and a van involved in a collision were parked on the inside lane of the M1 for almost six minutes during rush hour because there was no hard shoulder.
The motorway control room was oblivious to the danger and an automatic detection system was not operating in the section near Sheffield where the accident happened.
Trucker Prezemyslaw Szuba crashed into the van and killed motorists Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, who were standing between their vehicles and exchanging details.
A judge at Sheffield Crown Court jailed Szuba, 40, for ten months yesterday for causing death by careless driving after ruling his ‘inattention’ was the ‘main reason’ for the accident.
But Mr Mercer’s widow Claire, who is campaigning to ban smart motorways, blamed Highways England for her husband’s death.
Smart motorways use variable speed limits and allow drivers on to the hard shoulder to keep traffic flowing during busy periods. Some – like the stretch where Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu died – have no hard shoulder at all, but have ‘refuge’ laybys so drivers can pull over if they break down.
Mrs Mercer, 43, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said: ‘We don’t believe the correct person is taking responsibility for this.’ She insisted the tragedy would have been avoided if there’d been a hard shoulder.
The accident happened at 8.15am on June 7 last year. Mr Mercer, a contract manager, had just joined the northbound M1 near Sheffield when his Ford Focus had a ‘shunt’ with Mr Murgeanu’s Transit van.
Both then stopped on the inside lane – a decision the judge said was ‘understandable but very unwise’.
CCTV footage showed the men standing between their vehicles to exchange details. They remained there for five minutes and 51 seconds – as 96 other motorists passed in the next lane – before the defendant’s HGV hit the Transit at 56mph. At no time did a warning appear on nearby gantries or was the lane closed.
No motorists phoned the emergency services and the operator controlling motorway signs was not alerted.
Szuba was listening to the radio when he crashed without braking. Jeremy Evans, prosecuting, said he tried to steer away at the ‘last split second’.
The nearest refuge was almost a mile away, and that section of motorway did not have an under-surface sensor system to detect stationary vehicles – although Mr Evans said it would have been ‘unlikely’ to have picked up the accident as there was no tailback.
Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said he was not conducting an inquiry into the ‘rights and wrongs’ of smart motorways, but he said the absence of a hard shoulder was ‘ a very important thing’, likening it to ‘the emergency door on an airplane or lifeboats in ships’ that ‘mostly no one ever uses them but they are there’.
Andrew Smith, defending, said Szuba, who pleaded guilty, admitted his ‘negligent driving’ caused by a lack of concentration was ‘a significant cause of this accident’.
But he added: ‘It was not the only cause. These roads are simply unsafe.’
No alcohol, drugs or speeding were involved, and Szuba – who was banned from driving for four years from his release from jail – had a clean licence.
Highways England is investing £32million in a radar system to detect all stationary vehicles on smart motorways.
‘These roads are simply unsafe’