Child died on smart motorway after widow’s warning
Report into the death of woman’s husband in M6 ‘live lane’ crash never reached Highways England
A WOMAN whose husband was killed after becoming stranded on a smart motorway warned Highways England that more people could die just months before a child perished at the same spot, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Badra Ahmed pleaded with Highways England bosses to stop turning hard shoulders into “live lanes” after her husband’s inquest heard he had “nowhere to go” when his vehicle broke down on the M6.
And, an investigation by this newspaper found a coroner’s report calling for urgent action after Jamil Ahmed’s death was not submitted to Highways England.
Last night, the coroner confirmed the document had now been sent, 21
All the right moves
months after it was promised. Mr Ahmed, 36, a recovery driver, failed to reach an emergency refuge and stopped on the hard shoulder opened to traffic before his vehicle was hit by a lorry in August 2017.
At his inquest in January last year, his 38-year-old widow said similar deaths “could happen again”, prompting a Highways England boss to concede “it’s always possible” because staff struggled to spot stationary cars on CCTV and close lanes. Four months later, Dev Naran, eight, was killed when his grandfather stopped his car on the live hard shoulder on the same M6 stretch before a lorry smashed into them. That car was not spotted either.
Despite James Bennett, the then assistant coroner for Birmingham, saying he would send Highways England a report about his fear future deaths could occur, the document was never sent.
A spokeswoman for Birmingham coroner’s court last night blamed an “administrative error”.
Speaking from her home in Birmingham, Mrs Ahmed, who yesterday received an official apology from the court, said: “If the hard shoulder was not a live lane my husband would have been safe. And, if the coroner had raised a red flag and Highways England acted upon it, then perhaps that little boy may not have died.”
Meera Naran, Dev’s mother, added: “How can this not be a case of corporate manslaughter? Highways England has failed twice on a single stretch of smart motorway in the space of months.” The coroner’s “fear of future death” report is the second to be sent to
Highways England in a matter of weeks. The coroner presiding over Dev Naran’s death last month highlighted similar concerns.
The Government has launched a review into the safety of such motorways following a Telegraph investigation that established four motorists stranded on a single stretch of M1 live lane hard shoulder were killed in just 10 months.
A spokesman for Highways England, a government-owned company, last night said it could not comment on policy issues in the run-up to an election.