A senior coroner has urged National Highways to improve smart motorway safety after examining the circumstances around a fatal collision on the M1. Nicola Mundy wrote the organisation company to express concern that 153 vehicles passed a stranded car before a fatal collision on one of the roads without a hard shoulder.
Mother-of-five Nargis Begum, 62, had got out of the passenger seat of a Nissan Qashqai on the M1 in South Yorkshire when a Mercedes car, which appeared to take no avoiding action, collided with the stationary car, causing her fatal injuries. After conducting an inquest into Mrs Begum’s death at Doncaster Coroner’s Court in September, Ms Mundy sent a report to prevent future deaths to National Highways.
The senior coroner wrote that there is a “lack of public understanding” regarding the need to contact the authorities about stationary vehicles on motorways. She described how the message “does not appear to have been a priority” in public awareness campaigns about smart motorways, adding: “There is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken”.
