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Smart motorways could be reviewed by courts after widow brings judicial review

Claire Mercer is in the process of bringing a High Court legal challenge calling for smart motorways to be scrapped after her husband was killed on a 'smart section' of the M1 - ©2019 CAG Photography Ltd
Claire Mercer is in the process of bringing a High Court legal challenge calling for smart motorways to be scrapped after her husband was killed on a 'smart section' of the M1 - ©2019 CAG Photography Ltd

Smart motorways could be reviewed by the courts after a widow brings a judicial review.

Widow Claire Mercer is in the process of bringing a High Court legal challenge calling for smart motorways to be scrapped after her husband was killed on a 'smart section' of the M1.

Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell, acting on behalf of Mrs Mercer, have started the legal process that could lead to a High Court legal case against Highways England.

Jason Mercer, 44, of Rotherham, and 22-year-old Alexandru Murgreanu, from Mansfield, had been involved in a minor collision and had pulled over to exchange details.

They were killed when a HGV hit them near junction 34 of the M1 at Meadowhall in South Yorkshire.

The stretch of road is classed as an ‘all lanes running’ (ALR) motorway, meaning there is no hard shoulder in operation.

A 16 mile stretch of the M1 between junction 32 – the M18 - and junction 35a, near Meadowhall, is classed as all lanes running smart motorway.

In place of the hard shoulder are emergency refuges, which are said to be roughly a mile apart, though in some areas it is thought that their availability is far less.

Overhead signs indicate the speed limit and whether a lane is closed.

Mr Rotherham and Mr Murgreanu’s deaths were two of four people killed on the M1 in less than 10 months, as revealed by a Telegraph investigation.

It is now believed that at least seven people have died on smart motorways.

8-year-old Dev Naran who was killed on a smart motorway
8-year-old Dev Naran who was killed on a smart motorway

Jamil Ahmed, 36, a recovery driver, failed to reach an emergency refuge on the M6 and was hit by a lorry in August 2017 killing him instantly.

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.

A 62-year-old woman, who was a passenger in a grey Nissan Qashqai which broke down on the M1, one mile north of Woodall Services, was killed in September 2018.

In March 2019, Derek Jacobs, 83, was killed when his Volkswagen Crafter stopped in the first lane of the northbound M1 in Derbyshire after getting a puncture.

Last December, Zahid Ahmed, 19, a talented university student, died when the people carrier he was in failed to reach an emergency refuge area southbound on the M1 near Luton. It was hit by a lorry and four others sustained “critical and serious injuries”.

Mrs Mercer, 43, from Broom, Rotherham, said she didn’t know if she would “ever be able to come to terms” with her husband’s death, calling him a “truly wonderful man”.

She added: “Because this section of motorway is ALR there was no hard shoulder and they were not to know the nearest emergency refuge area was out of sight, a mile away.

“Anyone can be involved in a collision or anyone can break down.

“Each time you travel on an ALR it’s like playing Russian roulette with your life.

“If you break down you’re just a sitting duck.

“That Jason is among a number of people to have died shows that more needs to be done.”

Helen Smith, a solicitor at Irwin Mitchell called the number of fatalities on smart motorways which operate without a hard shoulder “a major cause for concern”.

She added: “In fact the Transport Select Committee has previously published a report warning that the government should not go ahead with ‘all lane running’ motorways because they posed a dangerous risk to drivers and emergency services.

“Through our initial investigations and the increasing amount of families which have been torn apart because of fatalities on smart motorways, it is clear that a full and urgent review of their use needs to be completed.

Mrs Mercer, who set up the campaign group Smart Motorways Kill, is hoping to raise £20,000 to support the legal challenge.