Smart motorway widow calls for end to ‘unnecessary’ deaths five years after husband was killed on M1
Political parties are being urged to commit to the "lifesaving" choice of scrapping all "smart" motorways nearly five years after the "needless" death of two men on a stretch of the MI in Yorkshire. Claire Mercer has been campaigning for the hard shoulder to be reinstated since her husband Jason, 44, from Broom[1], Rotherham[2], and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, of Mansfield[3], died on a stretch near Meadowhall[4] on June 7 2019. The pair had pulled over to exchange details after a minor collision and were killed instantly when a lorry ploughed into them.
The lorry driver, Prezemyslaw Szuba, was jailed for 10 months. At an inquest in 2021, coroner David Urpeth said the motorways carried "an ongoing risk of future deaths".
Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed along with Alexandru Murgeanu when they were both hit by a lorry after stopping on a section of smart motorway on the M1 near Sheffield following a minor collision, campaigns as part of the Smart Motorways Kill activism group.
Photo from 2022. Photo from 2022.
Mrs Mercer, whose story is being featured in a Channel 5 documentary at 7pm tonight (May 31), "Smart motorways: The shocking truth" is staging an exhibition in Rotherham next month, based on thousands of messages she has received from people affected by smart motorways. Comments like "this is madness" and "who to grab first?" have been printed out and will be strung like bunting across the Titans rugby ground in Rotherham, on June 12, where Mr Mercer was a season ticket holder.
Mrs Mercer said she believes around 100 people have died on smart motorways - finding out exactly how many is difficult because of the way the statistics are recorded. She said: "It's time to show the government the full picture of how the public feel about these motorways at the only time the government will care - election time."My husband's death was unnecessary as are all the others that have occurred." It came as the AA called for 193 miles of "all lane running" smart motorways to be brought into line with the 63 miles of "dynamic hard shoulder" smart motorways - where the hard shoulder is used as a traffic lane when it is busy.
The AA argues this will mean fewer live lane stops while keeping the emergency areas and overhead technology will add an extra layer of safety. Edmund King, AA president, said: "The 'smart' motorway experiment has failed. "Politicians need to stand up and be counted.
Despite all the hundreds of millions of pounds being spent to retrofit and try to justify a flawed concept, now is the time for a radical change." However Mrs Mercer said the AA's solution didn't make sense, as it still relies heavily on technology "which is proven time and time again not to work". Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said: "All of the evidence shows reinstalling the hard shoulder is the most effective way to keep motorists safe.
"I sincerely hope the next Government listens to the facts, not Highways England, when making this lifesaving choice." Ministers abandoned the smart motorways roll-out last April, admitting was there was is "a lack of confidence" following dozens of deaths, but said hard shoulders removed along more than 230 miles of carriageway would not be reinstated. A national retrofit adding extra places to stop in an emergency including between junctions 32 (Thurcroft) and 35A (Stocksbridge) on the M1 in Yorkshire[5], is ongoing.
Mrs Mercer said the work was "causing miles more traffic jams, congestion and cost" - and not solving the issue. "At the end of the day if you absolutely have to stop, would you rather it was on the hard shoulder or on the live running lane?" A Conservative Party spokesperson said: "We remain steadfastly committed to road safety and will maintain our pledge announced by the Prime Minister in April 2023 to build no new smart motorways and to focus on investing in improving the safety of existing ones.
"Meanwhile, we all know Labour's plan for roads. Look at Wales where they have imposed a moratorium on the building of new roads." The Department for Transport could not comment due to purdah rules.
The Labour Party was approached for a comment.