SMART M-WAYS CONDEMNED AS DEATH TRAPS
Coroner calls for Government review after landmark case
smart motorways present an ‘ongoing risk of future deaths’, a coroner warned yesterday.
Delivering a verdict of unlawful killing, David Urpeth ruled that the lack of a hard shoulder contributed to the deaths of two drivers on the M1.
He said he would ask ministers for a safety review ‘in the hope that lives can be saved’.
Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, were struck by a lorry in the tragedy near Sheffield in June 2019.
Mr Mercer’s widow Claire, who is a vocal campaigner against smart motorways, cried when the coroner gave his decision.
‘Somebody has listened and finally taken steps to address the use of these death trap roads,’ said the 43-year-old after the inquest.
‘We have taken a first step today to protecting the lives of others.’
Thirty-eight people have been killed on smart
motorways over a five-year period, the BBC reported last year.
Mrs Mercer’s solicitor called for plans for any more of the roads, which lack hard shoulders, to be put on hold until a public inquiry is held.
Neil Hudgell said: ‘If “smart motorways” continue in their present format to be allowed to operate, there will be continued deaths, and no doubt at some point an accident catastrophic in the number of people either seriously injured or killed in a single incident.’
Mr Mercer, a contracts manager from Rotherham, had just joined the northbound carriageway at junction 34 at around 8.15am when he caused a minor collision with Mr Murgeanu’s delivery van.
Instead of driving to the nearest ‘refuge’ area a mile on, both drivers stopped on the inside lane.
This decision was described as ‘ unwise but understandable’ by the coroner at Sheffield Town Hall. The van was parked behind the car with its hazard lights on. The pair exchanged details and were standing between the two vehicles – rather than safely behind the crash barrier – when a lorry smashed into the van, killing both men instantly.
The HGV driver, Prezemyslaw Szuba, admitted he was not paying attention and was jailed for ten months for causing death by careless driving last October.
The coroner agreed with the judge at Sheffield Crown Court that the 40-year-old was primarily to blame. But experts giving evidence to the inquest said the crash probably would not have happened had there been a hard shoulder.
Szuba gave evidence to the inquest via a link from prison and said: ‘If there had been a hard shoulder on this bit of motorway the collision would have been avoidable.
‘I would have driven past these two cars as it would be safer and they would have been able to come home safely and I would be able to come back home.’
Almost six minutes passed from the two cars parking on the inside lane to the HGV hitting them at 56mph.
During that time dozens of vehicles went by the blockage safely but no warning signs were displayed on overhead gantries because Highways England was not aware of the accident.
Szuba, who had just joined the motorway, said he had only three to five seconds to react.
The inquest looked at safety failures on the day of the tragedy. A sensor system to detect traffic problems, known as Midas, would not have worked because passing vehicles did not slow down. There was also a flaw in the system for human monitoring of cameras in a regional control centre.
Max Brown, head of road design for Highways England, said operators monitored a bank of screens but this was ‘not their primary purpose’. He also said the point of impact was out of shot of the nearest camera.
No one passing the two cars phoned the police or rang 999 and Highways England found out only when called by the fire brigade.
Smart motorways are controversial because cars that break down can be marooned in fastmoving traffic. They have refuge areas where drivers can stop every mile or so. There are around 500 miles of them in England, including sections of the M1, M4, M5, M6, M25 and M62.
Mr Brown said analysis of nine smart motorway schemes revealed there had been an 18 per cent improvement in the ‘casualty rate’ – although the stretch of the M1 where the tragedy happened was one of two hotspots where safety had deteriorated.
He said an improved, radarbased, stopped-vehicle detection system, designed to identify sta
tionary vehicles, was being rolled out but was ‘not 100 per cent guaranteed’ to spot problems.
In his ruling, the coroner said there had not been enough education around the use of smart motorways. He said he would send a ‘preventing future deaths report’ to Highways England and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
‘I believe that smart motorways as things currently stand present an ongoing risk of future deaths,’ he told the inquest.
He said his report would highlight the ‘obvious’ risk posed by the lack of a hard shoulder, the importance of better driver awareness and the need to identify stationary vehicles.
He also said ‘a wider review or inquiry into smart motorways would be beneficial’.
Nicholas Lyes, the RAC’s head of roads policy, said ‘ precious little progress’ had been made in fitting stopped-vehicle detection technology and urged Highways England to build more refuge areas.
A spokesman for the agency said it was already considering many of the points raised at the inquest in a plan published in March last year. The spokesman added: ‘We are determined to do all we can to make our roads as safe as possible.
‘We will carefully consider any further comments raised by the coroner once we receive the report.’