South Yorkshire campaigners to carry coffins through London in smart motorways protest
Demonstrators want major changes to the roads
Campaigners from South Yorkshire will be amongst those at a demonstration against smart motorways in central London today.
Demonstrators will be carrying coffins on a route between Parliament Square and the Department for Transport on Horseferry Road.
A smart motorway gets rid of the traditional hard shoulder, instead using overhead signals and variable speed limits to close lanes.
The government insists they reduce congestion and can help with safety, but campaigners, including former police officers and members of motoring organisations, say the roads increase risks for those forced to stop after breakdowns or accidents.
Campaigner group Smart Motorways Kill was set up after the 2019 deaths of Jason Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu on the M1 northbound near junction 34 at Sheffield.
A lorry collided with their stationary cars, which had pulled over following a minor accident. The lane in which they'd stopped wasn't closed until after they died.
Jason's husband Claire Mercer, from Rotherham, is a leading voice in the campaign.
Speaking to us last year, she said:
"It's devastating, it's just absolutely horrible. Why was there no education campaign? They fundamentally changed the busiest roads in England and there was no awareness campaign. The only advert I've ever heard for a smart motorway told me not to drive in a closed lane not what to do if I have an incident.
"It's happening all the time. In December (2019) there were five fatal incidents at one particular cluster of junctions. It's only a matter of time before it's a coach full of kids.
"I can't believe that people were crying out and demanding these changes years before my husband was killed. Dev, an eight year old boy, was killed. Derek Jacobs, an eighty three year old man, was killed. Years before, people were demanding these changes. And it's still happening now."
Last March, the government published the results of a review into smart motorway safety.
At the time Transport Minister Grant Shapps wrote:
"Overall, what the evidence shows is that in most ways, smart motorways are as safe as, or safer than, the conventional ones. But not in every way."
"To ensure we are doing all we can do to improve safety, I am publishing a package of 18 measures.
"This will allow us to retain the benefits of smart motorways while addressing the concerns that have been identified.
"Smart motorways have helped us cope with a 23% rise in traffic since 2000. They save motorists thousands of hours sitting in jams.
"They reduce the disruption and environmental destruction which would otherwise be needed to widen our busiest roads.
"Their growth, however, has not always been well explained, there is not uniformity, and concerns exist over safety."
Among proposed changes was a pledge to investigate the safety of the M1 at Sheffield and the deployment of systems to more quickly detect when someone had stopped in an active lane.