Widow of driver killed on smart motorway says safety improvements are ‘not good enough’

Claire Mercer, 47, spoke out after National Highways announced it is doubling the number of emergency refuge areas on the M1, between junctions 32 (Thurcroft) and 35A (Stocksbridge), taking the total 16.

Her husband Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, were hit by a lorry and killed near junction 34 (Meadowhall) in June 2019, after they stopped in the left-hand lane to exchange insurance details following a minor collision.

It happened a year after Nargis Begum, 62, was hit by a car and killed while she was waiting for help on the M1 near Woodall Services, after the Nissan Qashqai she was a passenger in broke down.

National Highways said it is aiming to build more than 150 new emergency areas on smart motorways by 2025 to “increase road users’ confidence”, but the hard shoulder will not return.

It comes after the Government cancelled plans to build more all-lane running smart motorways in April due to a “lack of public confidence”, but also refused to cancel work on current projects which are more than 75 per cent complete.

Ms Mercer, founder of the campaign group Smart Motorways Kill, said: “It's not good enough and it's not going to stop my campaign.

"I'm going to carry on until we get the hard shoulder back. I’m not giving up, I'm not going to stop.

“Anybody may need to stop on a motorway – any type of motorway – for a number of different things. Look at my husband, he was just in a minor bump. It should have just been a bad start to the day.”

Ms Mercer said she is concerned that some motorists will not be able to reach the refuge areas and emergency services vehicles will not be able to use them to get to incidents on the carriageway.

The campaigner also said there is “no logic” to the Government’s decision to scrap the roll out of smart motorways but allow the existing ones to remain in place.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the project was halted because of “the lack of public confidence felt by drivers and the cost pressures due to inflation”, but said more than £900m is being invested in safety improvements on existing smart motorways.

The Government has previously claimed they are safer than other roads, as they are monitored with a network of cameras and technology that detects stopped vehicles.

However, the reliability of the safety system – known as Dynac – has been called into question as it has failed on numerous occasions.

In 2021, Coroner David Urpeth said Mr Mercer’s and Mr Murgeanu’s deaths could have been avoided if there had been a hard shoulder and there was “an ongoing risk of future deaths”.

At another inquest in 2022, Coroner Nicola Mundy ruled the lack of a hard shoulder on the M1 contributed to the death of Ms Begum.

South Yorkshire Police then announced that National Highways “cannot be held liable” for the deaths because it “did not owe road users a relevant duty of care” under the terms of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.