Smart motorways: widow Clare Mercer to ‘keep fighting’ despite legal setback in National Highways action

Clare Mercer said: "I’m going to keep fighting until we have hard shoulders back on every single motorway across the country."
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A woman whose husband was killed on a smart motorway has said she will “keep fighting” after being warned against suing the organisation she blames for his death.

Clare Mercer has said she plans to take her case against National Highways to the High Court after police confirmed the agency would not face any criminal charges over the deaths of Clare’s husband Jason and Alexandru Murgeanu in June 2019.

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The two men died after they were hit by a lorry on a stretch of the M1 which didn’t have a hard shoulder. They had stopped in the left-hand lane to exchange insurance details following a minor collision near Sheffield.

Lorry driver Prezemyslaw Zbigniew Szuba was jailed for ten months after admitting two counts of causing death by driving without due care and attention. However, Clare argues that the agency responsible for installing and operating the smart motorway system is also responsible.

Lawyers have said Ms Mercer shouldn’t sue the organisation as she is unlikely to win because it explained it cannot monitor CCTV footage of the motorway 24 hours a day. However, she has said she is “going to keep fighting” and her lawyers are preparing to take National Highways to the High Court.

She said: "I’ve given up my career as an engineering buyer to concentrate on this full time. I’m not giving up and I’m not going away. Jason is still dead, so I can’t just stop.

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"I’m going to keep fighting until we have hard shoulders back on every single motorway across the country."

Clare Mercer with her husband Jason, who was killed on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder in 2019 (Photo: Clare Mercer/SWNS)Clare Mercer with her husband Jason, who was killed on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder in 2019 (Photo: Clare Mercer/SWNS)
Clare Mercer with her husband Jason, who was killed on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder in 2019 (Photo: Clare Mercer/SWNS)

Her comments come after South Yorkshire Police confirmed National Highways will not face criminal charges. The force said this is because the organisation “did not owe road users a relevant duty of care” under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

They also come a week after most of England’s smart motorways suffered a two-hour blackout which left National Highways unable to monitor and manage traffic on the controversial roads. The failure affected the Dynac system which is supposed to detect stopped vehicles in live traffic lanes and help manage lane closures to avoid collisions.

Responding to Ms Mercer’s comments, Duncan Smith, National Highways executive director of operations, said: “Our thoughts continue to be with Ms Mercer for her loss. We take our responsibilities towards road safety very seriously, and care passionately about the people who use our roads.

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The rollout of new smart motorways not in construction has been paused, and we will continue to make our network as safe as it can possibly be.”

This week AA president Edmund King accused National Highways of taking a “sticking plaster approach” to improving smart motorways with the addition of extra emergency refuge areas, stopped vehicle detection and more signs.

He told the Transport Select Committee the smart motorway network was “a system that was brought in on the cheap to try and save money” but has “put lives at risk and also congestion at risk”.

He went on: “That is one example of really poor policy over the years, and there’s just been this sticking-plaster approach. Can we make it slightly better? Can we put in a few more ERAs? Can we put in a bit more technology even though that technology is not working?

“The decision should have been made 10 years ago to stop this nonsense.”

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