'Smart motorway' death: Widow of man killed when lorry ploughed into his stationary car says the 'wrong person' was jailed
The judge said the victims would not have died had there been a hard shoulder, which he compared to life boats on ships.
Tuesday 20 October 2020 07:13, UK
The widow of a man who was killed when a lorry ploughed into his stationary car on a smart motorway has said the wrong person has been jailed.
Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, died when a lorry driven by Prezemyslaw Szuba crashed into their vehicles, which had stopped on a stretch of the M1 without a hard shoulder after a "minor shunt".
At Sheffield Crown Court on Monday, the 40-year-old was given a 10-month sentence.
Judge Jeremy Richardson told Szuba that he had to take the major part of the blame for the crash - adding: "Had there been a hard shoulder, or had the victims driven on for another mile to the refuge, this catastrophe would never have occurred.
"There must be no doubt, however, that the main cause of this fatal crash was your inattention to the road ahead of you."
But Claire Mercer, who has led a prominent campaign against smart motorways, said: "We don't believe the correct person is taking responsibility for this massive detrimental effect on ours and so many other people's lives.
"The events of 7 June 2019 would not have taken place if there had been a hard shoulder and Highways England was run with the correct priorities in mind - not concentrating on who wins the next big contract."
And referring to a national review of smart motorways, she said: "An agenda genuinely concerned with avoiding future deaths is not served by a pretend review and 18 compromises that wouldn't have saved any of 40-plus people killed by smart motorways, or by jailing the wrong person."
The judge was told how Szuba was driving well within the speed limit, had not been drinking or on drugs and was not distracted by any devices when he ploughed into the men's vehicles just north of junction 34, near Sheffield's Meadowhall shopping centre.
Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu had pulled over into lane one to inspect damage and exchange details after their minor collision.
Jeremy Evans, prosecuting, said that police calculated that the stationary vehicles would have been visible for 7.4 seconds as Szuba's lorry came round a slight bend - and he would have had between 3.7 and 5.2 seconds to react.
Police used footage to calculate that 147 vehicles in lanes one and two managed to manoeuvre around the stranded cars - but the prosecutor said Szuba was travelling at a steady 56mph up until the very last moment before the crash, and did not brake or move his vehicle.
Andrew Smith, defending, said: "The defendant has always accepted that his negligence, his lack of concentration of three, four, five seconds prior was a significant cause of this accident. But it was not the only cause."
And urging the judge not to jail his client, Mr Smith added: "He simply did not see it. He should have seen it and he didn't."
Mr Smith also described smart motorways as "simply unsafe".
The judge said the two men had made an "unwise" decision to stop, but said it was "understandable" given the stress of having such a collision on the motorway.
And he added: "I have no idea what research was undertaken when the decision was made to remove the hard shoulder on certain smart motorways but I cannot help but think that placing refuges at intervals of nearly three miles or even every one-and-a-half miles is a less than ideal or adequate substitute for a full hard shoulder."
Szuba has also been banned from driving for four years.