Highways England Referred To CPS Over Smart Motorways
03/04/2021
A Coroner has taken the highly unusual step of referring the death of a woman on a smart motorway to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Highways England could face corporate manslaughter charges after Nargis Begum, a 62-year-old grandmother perished after a vehicle crashed into her car which was sitting stationary on a live lane near Woodhall Services in South Yorkshire in September 2018.
Mrs Begum's car had broken down in the lane which is traditionally used as a hard shoulder but was open as an extra lane to ease traffic at the time. She was standing at the roadside waiting for help when another vehicle crashed into her car, causing it to plough into her. Mrs Begums’s death occurred 16 minutes and 21 seconds after her car had broken down, leading the Coroner, Nicola Mundy to raise concerns about how long the deceased’s vehicle remained undetected.
As of January 2020, there have been 38 deaths on smart motorways in the past five years. Furthermore, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed that on one section of the M25, outside London, the number of near misses (an incident that has the potential to cause serious injury or death) had risen 20-fold since the hard shoulder was removed in April 2014.
Government Ministers are concerned about smart motorways’ rollout
Sir Mike Penning, the former government minister who agreed to the expansion of smart motorways in 2010 told Panorama that he had been misled about the risks of removing hard shoulders.
According to the BBC:
“The pilot worked well because there were safe stopping points for motorists, called emergency safety refuges, on average every 600 metres.
But when the scheme was expanded across the country, the safety refuges were placed further apart. On some sections, they are 2.5 miles apart.
"They are endangering people's lives," said the Conservative MP. "There are people that are being killed and seriously injured on these roads, and it should never have happened."
The current Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps also recently criticised the rollout of smart motorways stating that it was “entirely wrong” and motorists are still confused about how to correctly drive on them.
Speaking before the Transport Committee, Mr Shapps said he was surprised that Highways England had not implemented stopped vehicle detection (SVD) technology from the beginning to reduce the time taken to spot broken-down vehicles. He confirmed that the deadline for SVD to be installed on all stretches of smart motorway is now being brought forward from March 2023 to next year.
The reference to SVD technology comes from an evidence report commissioned by Mr Shapps concerning smart motorway safety and a subsequent 18-point action plan that resulted from the data gathered. In addition to the SVD technology, the action plan committed to facilitating:
- The abolition of ‘dynamic hard shoulders’.
- Reducing the attendance time by Highways England traffic officers from an average of 17 minutes to 10 minutes where the existing spacing between places to stop in an emergency is more than one mile.
- Making emergency areas more visible and creating more of them.
- An additional £5 million on national targeted communications campaigns to further increase awareness and understanding of smart motorways, how they work and how to use them confidently.
More potential prosecutions possible
On 14 February 2021, it was reported that South Yorkshire Police had asked for the coroner’s dossier of evidence about two smart motorway deaths to establish whether Highways England was criminally responsible after abandoning the hard shoulder.
Following an investigation into the deaths of Jason Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu who died on the M1, Sheffield coroner David Urpeth concluded that the removal of the hard shoulder contributed to the men’s demise. He wrote to Mr Shapps and Highways England about his concerns related to the continued rollout of the all-lane running motorways, warning how they “present an ongoing risk of deaths”. Mr Mercer’s widow has implored the police to prosecute Highways England for corporate manslaughter on the grounds that management knew that dispensing with the hard shoulder without putting adequate systems in place to detect vehicles risked fatalities.
In a statement, South Yorkshire Police confirmed:
“Following a review of HM Coroner’s Prevention of Future Death report, South Yorkshire Police will be requesting full disclosure from HM Coroner of all documents and evidence that led to his conclusions that the evidence showed that there was an obvious and foreseeable risk posed by the absence of a hard shoulder on smart motorways.
“We wish to be clear that South Yorkshire Police are not instigating a formal criminal investigation into Highways England. This review of any additional material generated from the Inquest will allow South Yorkshire Police to determine if a crime has been committed and as a consequence whether any further criminal investigations should take place, in close consultation with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)."
Highways England responded:
“Our deepest sympathies are with the families of Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu, and all those affected by this tragic incident.
"Safety is Highways England's number one priority and we always work to make the strategic road network safer. It would be inappropriate for us to provide comment on the activity of South Yorkshire Police.”
In summary
For the CPS to prosecute Highways England, they must be satisfied that:
a) there is enough evidence to provide a "realistic prospect of conviction", and
b) whether a prosecution is needed in the public interest.
Regardless of the outcome, it is clear from the high number of deaths in such a short period that the 18-point action plan implementation needs to be accelerated.
It is also important to note that Highways England has proposed changes to the Highways Code to improve safety on smart motorways, including inserting the following:
‘The hard shoulder is used as an extra lane on some motorways during periods of congestion.
'You will know when the hard shoulder can be used as an extra lane because a speed limit will be shown above all open lanes, including the hard shoulder.'
‘If a hard shoulder only came into use 'during periods of congestion', it would make it a 'dynamic hard shoulder.’
Other changes include new and additional guidance on using variable speed limits to reduce congestion and the availability, appearance, and use of emergency areas.
Consultation on the proposed changes closes on 29 March 2021.
