The widow of a man killed on a smart motorway has hit out after video footage emerged of a terrifying near-miss on the same stretch of road.<br /><br />Claire Mercer's husband Jason, 44, died alongside Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, as they swapped details after a bump on the M1 near Sheffield in 2019.<br /><br />Smart motorways are stretches of carriageway where the traditional hard shoulder is removed and is used as a traffic lane.<br /><br />The pair pulled over to exchange details, but because the stretch of road is classed as an ‘all lanes running’ (ALR) motorway, there was no hard shoulder in operation. <br /><br />Although they had pulled over as far as they could, after they left their vehicles a lorry ploughed into them and they were pronounced dead at the scene. <br /><br />Claire has campaigned for smart motorways to be scrapped and has launched a legal bid for their used to halted as she says accidents are common on the roads.<br /><br />And she has reiterated her calls after dashcam footage shows a vehicle narrowly avoiding a stationary van just a few hundred metres from where Jason and Alexandru were killed.<br /><br />The terrifying recording, taken last Wednesday (Jan 5), shows a vehicle driving along the M1.<br /><br />The overhead signs on the motorway do not warn drivers of any stranded vehicles, but a car can be seen swerving a parked van at the last minute.<br /><br />The driver filming the footage also has to swerve late to narrowly avoid missing the broken down vehicle.<br /><br />Claire said only the fact that it was late at night and the road was quiet meant there were no fatalities.<br /><br />She said: “It just happens time and time again, and this is two and a half years after one of the most horrific incidents in recent memory.<br /><br />“They had to send in a specialist team to retrieve the body parts from my husband’s crash.<br /><br />“Two and a half years later, a quarter of the equipment at that junction is not working, and that video clearly shows it.”<br /><br />A 16 mile stretch of the M1 between junction 32 – the M18 - and junction 35a, near the Meadowhall Shopping Centre, is classed as all lanes running smart motorway.<br /><br />The hard shoulder has been replaced with emergency refuges, said to be around a mile apart, though in some areas it's thought that their availability is far less. <br /><br />Overhead signs indicate the speed limit and whether a lane is closed.<br /><br />In the disturbing video, filmed at 7:23 pm, a driver is filmed cruising behind a car on the M1 in South Yorkshire, just past the Tinsley viaduct, near junction 34.<br /><br />Without him knowing, there is a stranded van parked close to the central reservation ahead of him, which is barely visible in the gloom.<br /><br />The electronic overhead boards, which should be showing the lane as closed, still tell the road users to drive at 60mph and gives no indication of the impending danger.<br /><br />And as the vehicle approaches, he only becomes aware of the blockage when the vehicle in front gives a right-hand single, narrowly preventing a head one collision. <br /><br />Claire, who will soon launch a judicial review following the anticipated findings of the Transport Select Committee, says that the building of smart motorways she be halted.<br /><br />She said: “Two and half years ago, we knew far less about smart motorways. I don’t think Jason and Alexandru even knew what a smart motorway was.<br /><br />“I don’t think they realised the danger they were in, but now we do, yet it still keeps happening.<br /><br />She added: “It’s heartbreaking. Even the people who haven’t been killed – it’s those who are surviving with these injuries. <br /><br />"We’re bringing a judicial review against the government to make smart motorways banned in the high court, but they’ve been ignoring us for six months.”<br /><br />England's motorway network has 13 sections of all lane running motorways which don’t have a hard shoulder. These include parts of the M1, M3, M5, M6 and M25.<br /> <br />Outside the M25, staff who manage the motorway network have no system of automatic alert if a lone vehicle has stopped in a live lane. <br /><br />Instead they rely on Midas (motorway incident detection and automatic signaling), which monitors traffic flow and picks up on slow-moving traffic that could suggest a stationary vehicle, as well as 999 calls and calls from the public.<br /> <br />An average of 26 drivers break down a day on smart motorways, according to government figures.<br /><br />Highways England have been approached for comment.
