Over 150 motorists ignored stranded vehicle on M1 before fatal crash i | UK | News

Over 150 motorists sped past a stranded vehicle that had broken down on a smart motorway before a high-speed horror crash led to the tragic death of a cherished grandmother. Fellow motorists failures and a lack of a hard shoulder on the of the M1 in South Yorkshire contributed to the death of mother-of-five Nargis Begum, a coroner ruled.

The death adds to calls from campaigners who say have branded Smart Motorways as “death traps” including Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason, 44, was killed in a separate crash on the M1 near Sheffield. Mrs Begum, 62, had got out of a Nissan Qashqai, which was being driven by her husband Mohammad Bashir, 69, after it broke down on the motorway in September 2018. The stranded Nissan had its hazard lights when the other vehicle collided with it. The lane had not been closed to traffic.

An investigation subsequently found that 153 cars drove past the broken-down vehicle without alerting the authorities before 16 and a half minutes later a Mercedes collided with the stationary car, catapulting it into Mrs Begum – who was resting against a barrier – at speed causing her devastating injuries.

Minutes before the collision the couple had phoned their daughter Saima Aktar, 40, who arrived at the scene to find paramedics desperately trying to save her mum.

Saima said: “The pain and suffering our family are going through is as raw now as it was when mum died.

“She was the most kind, gentle and loving person you could wish to meet. Mum’s life revolved around family and all she wanted for us was health and happiness; something we’ve struggled to feel since her death. Our dad is a shadow of himself. That he avoided injury but his loving and caring wife of 45 years died in front of him has taken its toll on him.

“Trying to grieve for mum has been made all the harder because of the concerns we have about smart motorways and the events surrounding mum’s death.

Senior Coroner Nicola Mundy said the fact no drivers reported the stranded car was an important factor in the death.

They were all driving on a section which includes an All Lanes Running Smart motorway section, but according to a prevention of future deaths report issued by Ms Mundy in 2022, but now published in full, the car was not known to have any defects, and had been serviced, but it began to lose power. It came to a halt in a live lane near to Woodall Services, South Yorkshire, but the driver managed to move it over to the left-hand side of the carriageway.

However, the offside wheels of the car remained on the road in lane one of the motorway. Mrs Begum left the car and rested on the barrier, close to the front of the vehicle.

The coroner’s report stated that 16 minutes and 21 seconds later the Mercedes car crashed into the rear of the car.

In that 16 minutes and 21 seconds, 153 drivers had passed by the stopped car, and none alerted Highways England/National Highways, or the emergency services.

One witness the coroner spoke to stated he had discussed calling National Highways with his partner, but thought cameras on the motorway would detect the stopped car.

The coroner investigated the stationary vehicle detection technology, and heard evidence that it was believed it would detect 80% or more of stationary vehicles in a timely fashion.

But investigating, the coroner said there were three matters of concern for Highways England to take action on.

These were the “lack of public understanding regarding the need for them to call National Highways should they identify a problem on the motorway network”, the lack of emphasis on the importance of the responsibility of road users to alert the authorities of problems like stationary cars and the lack of a priority for this message despite public information during the SMART motorways rollout.

Family lawyer Christopher Kardahji of Irwin Mitchell said: “Nargis was the heartbeat of the family and four years on her loved ones remain devastated by their loss.

“The pain of losing Nargis has been made all the harder given circumstances in which she died.

“Her family continue to have a number of concerns about the use of smart motorways and the events surrounding her death.

“While nothing can ever make up for what’s happened we’re determined to help provide Nargis’s family with the answers they deserve.”

National Highways responded by saying: “Mrs Begum’s death was a tragedy, and our sympathies remain with her family and friends.

“National Highways is the Government-owned company, sponsored by the Department for Transport (DfT), charged with operating, maintaining and improving England’s motorways and major A-roads. Responsibility for local roads rests with local highway authorities and the road network in other parts of the UK rests with the devolved administrations.”

They say the government published a ‘Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan’ in March 2020 which sought to increase safety, and that National Highways had published reports in 2021 and 2022 showing the action they had taken towards achieving this. They said there was an ongoing programme of road safety activity intended to make roads safer, including a section on breakdown advice, and that action needed to be taken in wider consultation with others.

The response added: “We worked with stakeholders to launch England’s first major campaign, in 2021, to raise awareness of the eCall or ‘SOS’ button function, which increasing numbers of newer cars come with and which can be used to call for help, by the driver or someone else needing help, if a situation requires emergency services. This was on digital channels, including a dedicated campaign page on our external website. The Highway Code, which was updated in September 2021, also now advises the use of eCall to contact police and communicate a location directly to a 999 operator under The Highway Code current rules 277, 279 and 283.

“In November 2021, we delivered the second wave of the eCall awareness campaign. The eCall explainer highlighted the safety messages to raise awareness of how and when to use eCall in newer vehicles. This is available on YouTube.

“Overall, the campaign has seen an increase in the correct use of the eCall system of connected emergency services calls from 22% in 2020 to 59% in 2022. This statistic was verified by the British Association of Public Safety Communications Officials.

“We worked with DfT and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to enable The Highway Code to be updated on 14 September 2021. This will help improve driver understanding and confidence when driving on a motorway.

We launched a ‘Driving on motorways’ hub on our website in January 2022, which provides a central point for all our information and advice on motorway driving. The hub was launched alongside a multimedia campaign and radio day, with content featured on over 450 stations reaching over 6 million listeners.

These activities were designed to reach drivers up and down the country to help provide a better understanding, and help increase their confidence, when travelling on all types of roads.

“We are committed to providing even more information that is highly accessible to drivers. Our aim is to help them feel safe and be safer on all our roads, including smart motorways. We have listened to the concerns raised by the Coroner at the inquest and subsequently via this Regulation 28 report.”

They added an update to The Highway Code may be “beneficial” in letting the public know the actions they need to take to identify problems like stationary vehicles and they had committed to conduct a study into further actions to raise awareness.

Here is the timetable for action National Highways laid out:

* Before the end of 2022 – We will include an update on the eCall campaign and emphasise that the function can be used to help both the driver of the vehicle which has the function, and to help others in difficulty.

* January 2023 – National Highways to provide the Coroner with an update on the study (which started in September 2022), progress and next steps, including an update on the planned completion date, which is currently expected by summer 2023.

* Spring 2023 – Planned publication of a smart motorways stocktake third year progress report, providing the latest safety data (2017 to2021). As part of this report preparation, we will consider whether we need to take additional action to further improve the safety of smart motorways.

 * Summer 2025 – At this early stage we are working to a planned completion date of summer 2023 to complete the study, subject to the wider engagement with external parties who we will shortly approach. As a result of the study, we are looking to prepare a shortlisted set of options that could be implemented after the end of the study.

* 2025 – Complete the installation of over 150 additional emergency areas on all lane running smart motorways in operation and construction.