Lorry driver jailed after two men died in M1 horror crash
HGV PLOUGHED INTO TWO STATIONARY VEHICLES
A HULL lorry driver has been jailed after causing the deaths of two men killed on the slow lane of the M1 when his lorry ploughed into their stationary vehicles.
Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, died on June 7, 2019, when a lorry driven by Prezemyslaw Zbigniew Szuba ploughed into their stationary vehicles on a stretch of the M1 near Sheffield following a “minor bump”.
Szuba, 40, of Adelaide Street in west Hull, admitted two counts of causing death by driving without due care and attention when he appeared at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court in September.
Yesterday, he was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court.
The earlier magistrates’ court hearing had heard how Mr Mercer, of Rotherham, and Mr Murgeanu, of Mansfield, had been involved in a “minor bump” on the northbound carriageway of the M1, between junctions 34 and 35, and had stopped in the slow lane.
Szuba’s Mercedes HGV “ploughed into both vehicles”.
Prosecutors said the lorry was not speeding and there was no suggestion that the defendant had been drinking or was on drugs.
Nicola Hale, defending, said Szuba had only just joined the motorway at junction 34 and “it was only for a matter of seconds that the (stationary) vehicles were visible”.
She said the evidence in the case showed Szuba was driving “normally” and well within the speed limit just before the crash.
Sentencing Szuba, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said motorway hard shoulders were like “lifeboats on ships”.
While he said it was not his role to conduct a public inquiry into the controversial highways, he added: “A hard shoulder strikes me as analogous to the emergency doors on an aeroplane or lifeboats on ships.
“One never hopes ever to use them, and most of the time you never do. But they’re there.”
Szuba was sentenced to ten months in jail and disqualified for four years.
Mr Mercer’s wife, Claire, has mounted a campaign against smart motorways since her husband’s death, arguing that he would not have died if there had been a hard shoulder.
Speaking outside court after the sentencing, she said: “We don’t believe the correct person is taking responsibility for this massive detrimental effect on ours and so many other people’s lives.
“The events of June 7, 2019, would not have taken place if there had been a hard shoulder and Highways England was run with the correct priorities in mind – not concentrating on who wins the next big contract.
“An agenda genuinely cerned with avoiding deaths is not served by confuture a pre
Jason Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu lost their lives tend review and 18 compromises that wouldn’t have saved any of 40-plus people killed by smart motorways or by jailing the wrong person.” South Yorkshire Police Serious Collisions Unit Sergeant and Investigating Officer Mark Bradey said: “My thoughts are firstly with the family of both Jason and Alexandru, they have not only lost their loved ones but have had to relive the tragedy during the court proceedings.
“Szuba pleaded guilty to the charges, accepted responsibility and spared the families further distress by going through a trial process.
“I hope today will bring some element of closure to Jason and Alexandru’s loved ones.”
We don’t believe the correct person is taking responsibility for this massive detrimental effect on our lives Claire Mercer