Faces of tragic victims who might still be here today without smart …

17/04/2023

These are the faces of some of the tragic victims ^[1] of smart motorways – whose families insist would still be here today were it not for “dangerous” changes to our busiest and fastest highways. They include eight-year-old Dev Naran, who was killed on the M6 near Birmingham when his grandad’s stationary car was struck by a lorry on the hard shoulder.

Planned new smart motorways have been scrapped ^[2] by the Government following years of concerns by motoring experts and campaigners. But dozens of lives have been lost on these “dangerous” stretches of motorway before getting to this point, amid claims the public have lost confidence in them.

Smart motorways were rolled out over the last decade, removing the hard shoulder and turning it into a live traffic lane in some cases. Changes were made to reduce congestion and allow more traffic to move along motorways.

At times where motorways are particularly busy, overhead gantries can be used to instruct drivers to use the hard shoulder as it becomes a live running lane. But the removal of the hard shoulder sparked concerns about what would happen if drivers got into trouble and were unable to reach refuge areas, as happened in the cases of a number of victims, with several coroners choosing to speak out ^[4] at inquests to criticise them.

Motoring organisation the AA has called for all existing smart motorways, including on sections of the M6, M5 and M42, to be scrapped and believes they are not safe. They have been linked to 79 deaths, campaigners say. Millions of pounds were spent converting a long stretch of the M6 between Stafford ^[5] and Stoke into a smart motorway, which caused major disruption to motorists lasting years.

Eight-year-old Dev Naran was on his way home to Leicester from visiting his sick brother at Birmingham Children’s Hospital when the tragedy happened between M6 Junctions six and five in May 2018. Devastated mum Meera subsequently called for “Dev’s Law”, a campaign to make Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) compulsory in new cars.

Tragic Dev Naran. (Image: west midlands police)

Jason Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu died in June 2019 when they were hit by a lorry on the M1 near Sheffield after they stopped on the inside lane of the smart motorway section after a minor collision. Mr Mercer’s wife Claire has since campaigned fiercely against smart motorways.

Jason Mercer. (Image: BBC Inside Out North West)

She said outside his inquest: “We had something before that was infallible. The hard shoulder was just always there and didn’t make mistakes and we’ve replaced it with something that isn’t always there and does make mistakes.

“And that was a conscious decision. They have designed danger into a smart motorway.” Elsewhere, Zahir Ahmed, 19, died while returning from Birmingham after a lorry ploughed into his vehicle on the M1 near Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

At the time of the smash the hard shoulder was being used as an active lane. His friend Mohammed Bhaimia, 20, suffered serious injuries after the HGV rammed into the back of the people carrier in which the five friends were passengers.

Mohammed Bhaimia was seriously injured.

Pressure has been growing on the Government with each tragedy, particularly as Rishi Sunak had pledged to ban smart motorways before he became Prime Minister. Earlier this month an assistant coroner said Derek Jacobs, 83, would not have died had he been able to pull onto a hard shoulder.

The pensioner was forced to stop in a live lane after he suffered a blown tyre. He was stationary for more than three minutes before his van was hit by a Ford KA on the M1 near Sheffield in 2019. The passenger in the KA also died two months later in hospital.

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