Smart motorway had role in pair’s death, inquest told
SMART motorways carry ‘an ongoing risk of future deaths’, a coroner has warned following an inquest into two men who were killed when a lorry hit them on a stretch of the M1.
David Urpeth said a ‘clear lack of hard shoulder’ contributed to the deaths of Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, on the motorway in south Yorkshire in June 2019.
Recording a conclusion of unlawful killing, he said the prime reason for the deaths was the careless driving of Prezemyslaw Szuba, whose Mercedes lorry ploughed into their cars as they stood stationary after a minor shunt.
But Mr Urpeth said he would be writing to transport secretary Grant Shapps recommending a review of smart motorways, adding it was a ‘sad indictment’ that no information was provided for the public on how to use them.
Szuba, 44, earlier told the inquest the collision ‘would have been avoidable’ if there had been a hard shoulder.
Answering questions over the phone from prison, where he is serving ten months after admitting causing the men’s deaths by careless driving, Szuba, from Hull, said he ‘accepted at the trial’ in October his own responsibility.
But he added: ‘I would have driven past these two cars as it would be safer
and they would have come home safely and I would have come back home.’
Mr Mercer’s widow Claire, a vocal campaigner against smart motorways, cried in court when the coroner said the lack of a hard shoulder contributed to her husband’s death.
Afterwards she said: ‘It reiterates what we’ve been saying for months – just how dangerous these roads are.’
The Sheffield inquest was told Mr Mercer, of Rotherham, and Mr Murgeanu, of Mansfield, were in lane one of the four-lane motorway. They had got out of their cars to exchange details about a minor collision when they were hit by Szuba’s lorry, which was travelling at a speed-regulated 56mph.