‘The grieving widow of a man killed on a smart motorway has today blasted the Transport Secretary’s ‘offensive’ safety plans to improve the controversial roads.
An 18-point safety plan was announced today to keep the roads running across the UK despite 38 deaths in five years.
Jason Mercer was killed just 15 minutes after saying goodbye to his wife Claire after a HGV ploughed into him as he exchanged details with Alexandru Murgeanu on the M1 near Sheffield last June.
Claire said the new plan for the roads was a ‘range of compromises’ and that the changes ‘didn’t go far enough’.
Another victim included eight-year-old Dev Naran who died on the M6 when his grandfather’s car was struck by a lorry on the hard shoulder.
His mother Meera has previously said his death was preventable and urged officials to revisit the system.
But transport secretary Grant Shapps today insisted smart motorways are safe but admitted that more could be done to ‘raise the bar on smart motorway safety’ and his ‘action plan’ would deliver improvements.’
