Smart Motorways: Government 'batting off' calls to release impact reports is 'an insult,' says Rotherham widow
The widow of a man who was killed on a smart motorway near Sheffield says the Government can no longer ‘wave away’ calls to release long-delayed impact reports.
Jason Mercer, 44, was killed on the M1 near junction 34 in June 2019 when he was hit by a lorry after stopping on the inside lane, where there had once been a hard shoulder.
He had stopped after a minor collision with another man, Alexandru Murgeanu, who was also killed in the crash. In 2023, a coroner found the lack of hard shoulder contributed to their deaths.
Now, Jason’s widow Claire Mercer, has slammed the Department for Transport (DfT) for making “no attempt to answer” demands on when a long-delayed series of reports into the smart motorways scheme will be released.
The ‘Post Opening Project Evaluations’ (POPE) reports, produced by National highways, assess the performance and safety of road schemes.
However, several ‘five-year-after reports’ including for the M1 junctions 31 to 32, have not been released.
Other reports are currently three years overdue in some cases with the DfT claiming that they are undergoing an “assurance process.”
Speaking to The Star, Claire - founder of the Smarts Motoways Kill Campaign - scolded the DfT and said she believes the “only reason” for the delays can be that roads minister Simon Lightwood is “merely preparing to spin what are likely to be very negative findings.”
Claire said: “It is clear that genuine assurance of these documents was completed years ago and that Lightwood has merely put up a smokescreen to try to bury bad news.
“All of which basically means that they are choosing not to release them.”
“National Highways and DfT have been batting off requests. But, when challenged about this, Simon Lightwood has backpedalled on his claim that there is an official process, and it is now clear that he is merely preparing to spin what are likely to be very negative findings.
“As he made this claim directly to me in writing, someone widowed by government policy, I have sadly reached the conclusion that I have been lied to by a government minister.”
Requests for the expected release date by solicitors Irwin Mitchel, MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion, and The Star were sidestepped.
When The Star asked the DfT to confirm if the POPE reports will be released in 2025, a Department for Transport spokesperson gave no date and only said: "Smart motorways remain our safest roads in terms of deaths or serious injuries.
“While our roads are amongst the safest in the world, we are making them even safer with our forthcoming Road Safety Strategy, the first in more than a decade.”
“That reply is an insult,” said Claire in response. “They’ve not even tried to answer any questions. It is just copy and pasted sound bites.”
In 2023, Sheffield coroner David Urpeth ruled that Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu were unlawfully killed, and said: "I find, as a finding of fact, it is clear a lack of hard shoulder contributed to this tragedy."
In 2018, mother-of-five Nargis Begum died after she got out of the passenger side of a car on the M1 north of Woodhall Services and it was hit by a Mercedes.
In another case, Derek Jacobs, 83, died when his van was hit by a car on the M1 near Sheffield in March 2019 after he had stopped in the live inside lane following a tyre blow-out and got out of the vehicle.
The front seat passenger in the Ford Ka that hit the van, Charles Scripps, 78, died in hospital two months after the collision.
Assistant coroner Susan Evans told Chesterfield Coroner's Court concluded: “It is immediately apparent that, had there been a hard shoulder, this incident would not have occurred because Mr Jacobs would have been able to pull off the live lane entirely."