‘It is 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.”
CAMPAIGN Claire with huge screen of husband
This week I failed miserably at setting up a new laptop with Microsoft Windows.
I turned it on, then a voice told me: “Hi, I’m Cortana, I’m here to help. Very soon we’ll have installed Windows. Let’s go.” Then I was asked for every personal detail, including questions such as: “When did you eat your first banana?” Then it wanted them all again. After an hour, Cortana said: “Hi, you’re doing great, we’re nearly there.”
After yet another hour, Cortana said: “Hi, you’re doing great, we’re nearly there.”
Then it sent a series of codes and asked for a licence number no one in the world could know, plus nine passwords, and told me to download a Stegamegategabyte.
Then I gave up. Now I want to find Bill Gates and bash him with my useless computer, occasionally pausing to say: “Hi. I’m Mark, you’re doing great, I’ve nearly finished.”
A HELICOPTER pilot who flew an 80-mile round trip to pick up a beef sandwich is being investigated for an alleged lockdown breach.
An online video shows the chopper land to get the snack from Chipping Farm Shop, near Preston, Lancs.
Local councillor Simon Hore said the trip looked like “a flagrant abuse of the restrictions on travel”.
A flight radar website tracked the helicopter to the shop from City Airport in Salford.
Police are investigating.