‘Blood on hands’ claim in protest

Prosecution call over smart motorways

ROADS: A widow who has called for Highways England to be prosecuted over the death of her husband on a smart motorway protested at police headquarters on what would have been his 46th birthday.

Claire Mercer said future smart motorway deaths “will be blood on the hands of the people running our roads”.

A SOUTH Yorkshire widow who has called for Highways England to be prosecuted over the death of her husband on a smart motorway has staged a protest outside police headquarters on what would have been his 46th birthday.

Claire Mercer, from Rotherham, said future smart motorway deaths “will be blood on the hands of the people running our roads” as she prepared to mark her husband’s birthday by placing a giant screen outside South Yorkshire Police’s HQ yesterday.

Mr Mercer died on part of the M1 which has no hard shoulder – along with another motorist, Alexandru Murgeanu – when a lorry ploughed into them little more than a mile from the HQ building in Sheffield, in June 2019.

At an inquest in January, Sheffield coroner David Urpeth said: “I find, as a finding of fact, it is clear a lack of hard shoulder contributed to this tragedy.”

He told an inquest at Sheffield Town Hall: “I believe that smart motorways, as things currently stand, present an ongoing risk of future deaths.”

A month later, Doncaster coroner Nicola Mundy referred Highways England to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider if corporate manslaughter charges were appropriate in relation to the death of grandmother Nargis Begum, 62, who died on a different stretch of the M1 in September 2018.

Mrs Mercer’s lawyers have written to South Yorkshire’s Chief Constable, Stephen Watson, demanding the same happens in her husband’s case.

Mrs Mercer said: “The message has been sent loud and clear, these roads are death traps in the way they are operated and managed.

“Two coroners have now highlighted the dangers within the past couple of months.

“Now statistics are further proving the case but now we need action. Every future death involving stationary vehicles on roads which were previously hard shoulders will be blood on the hands of the people running our roads.”

Mrs Mercer, 44, said the wrong person had been jailed when lorry driver Prezemyslaw Szuba was given a 10-month sentence last year after ploughing into her husband and Mr Murgeanu.

Her solicitor, Neil Hudgell, said: “Our client feels strongly that there is a case to answer for the offence of corporate manslaughter in relation to Jason’s death and we have written to the Chief Constable stating just that.

“The fact is that Highways England has been aware of the obvious risk of removing hard shoulders on motorways, yet has continued to expand this network. Highways England can’t be allowed to simply see the deaths of Jason, Mrs Begum and so many others as statistics. It can’t be right for people to die in the future on these roads only to become a statistic too.

“Our client strongly believes that hard shoulders must be reintroduced on these motorways until evidence proves they can be operated safely.”

These roads are death traps in the way they are operated. Claire Mercer, who is campaigning against smart motorways.