Transport Secretary says “Smart Motorways safer than non-dynamic ones” as widow of man killed on one accuses Labour of “watering down” stance

27 September 2024, 12:05

The Transport Secretary has told LBC that making Smart Motorways safer “isn’t just a case of bringing the hard shoulder back.”

The Transport Secretary has told LBC that making Smart Motorways safer “isn’t just a case of bringing the hard shoulder back.”

Some campaigners have been calling for them to be scrapped, including Claire Mercer from Rotherham. In 2019, her husband Jason and another man, Alexandru Mergeanu, were killed on the M1 near Sheffield.

They’d been involved in a minor collision and had stepped out of their vehicles to swap details. But because there was no hard shoulder, they had to do it in the lane where the collision had happened.

The pair were then hit by a lorry and killed. The lorry driver, Prezemyslaw Szuba, was jailed for 10 months.

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Claire Mercer and Louise Haigh

In 2021, an inquest ruled that a lack of a hard shoulder had “contributed to their deaths” and that smart motorways "present an ongoing risk of future deaths".

“I said goodbye to my husband at 8 o’clock that morning and he was dead by 12 minutes past.” Says Claire. “The physical and mental effects grief can have on you are absolutely astounding.”

Claire was at the Labour Party Conference this week, hoping to speak to Louise Haigh about her campaign. She says that Labour was supportive of her when in opposition, but now they’re in power, their stance has been “watered down.”

“Louise Haigh copied me in on some correspondence when she was Shadow Transport Secretary, saying ‘the government knows these are dangerous, they’re not fit for purpose, I am absolutely against them and I’ll do everything I can to get them scrapped.’ They were her words.” adds Claire.

“We want her to honour the promise she made last year. Last year they ‘weren’t fit for purpose’, now we can make do with another review.”

Speaking to LBC on a visit to Blackpool, the Secretary of State said they are reviewing the safety of Smart Motorways, “The issue is that there are miles and miles of smart motorways across the country.

"The data that we have for a lot of those motorways is actually that they are safer than non-dynamic motorways. It was right that the previous government paused the rollout of new smart motorways.

“We’re doing everything we can at the moment. It’s not just a case of switching on the hard shoulder overnight.”

But for Claire, this is something that she’ll continue fighting for, “I’ve had to quit my career, I’ve been campaigning ever since. Unfortunately for Louise Haigh, she’s an MP in the next city over from me and it’s also where Jason died.

“If it comes down to giving us the hard shoulder back so we shut up and go away, that’s what I’ll go for, because I’m not giving up.”