South Yorkshire widow's heartbreak at smart motorway decision

A widow who's husband died in a crash on a smart motorway has said she's heartbroken about a decision not to build a hard shoulder there.

A long-awaited report from National Highways has instead recommended other safety technology, including cameras to detect stopped vehicles.

But Claire Mercer- who's husband Jason died on the M1 in 2019- said the decision isn't good enough, and puts lives at risk.

"They're just digging their heels in, they can't admit that they've spent billions on a dangerous and terrible idea" Claire said.

The report found that from Junction 32 to Junction 35, the average numbers of collisions per year have decreased since the smart motorway opened, but the number of “serious injury” collisions per year have increased.

The number of fatal collisions have also increased from one in three years to three in three years.

It adds that a Rotherham Council scheme to reduce congestion at J33 will be “kept under review”, and one new emergency refuge will be installed between Woodall services and J31 on the Derbyshire – South Yorkshire border.

However, no additional safety refuges will be installed between junctions 32 and 35 – the stretch of road where Jason Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu tragically died in 2019.

A coroners report found the lack of hard shoulder on the motorway contributed to their deaths.

"It scares me to know people are still driving past the scene of a horrific accident, and it scares me in general that people are on smart motorways," Claire admitted. "They need to be scrapped."

"Grant Shapps will have to carry on running away from me"

Rotherham MP Sarah Champion has promised to carry on fighting for more refuge spots along the M1.

She said she was "incredibly frustrated" by the report, and has accused the government and the transport secretary of putting their heads in the sand.

Ms. Champion said she last spoke to Grant Shapps about the issue in June, and has written to him since the latest report came out.

She accused him of "running away" from the argument and hiding behind data, which claims smart motorways are safer.

"Yes that's true," Champion admitted. "But that's only if it has a smart motorway, or predictive signing that can tell you to slow down."

"All we've got is no hard shoulder and no technology to support it."

National Highways said: "All road journeys involve risk, but the chance of death on smart motorways is less than on any other major road."

"But that does not mean that we do not need to do more."