The lack of a hard shoulder on a stretch of smart motorway contributed to the death of a grandmother after the car she was travelling in broke down and was hit by another vehicle, a coroner has ruled.
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.
On Friday, exactly four years after the crash, senior coroner Nicola Mundy told Doncaster Coroner’s Court the fact none of drivers of the 153 vehicles which passed the stranded car before the collision alerted National Highways to its presence also contributed to Mrs Begum’s death.
