Prevention of Future Deaths report 2021-0013

D J Urpeth Esq 
HM Senior Coroner 
South Yorkshire (West) 
The Medico-Legal Centre 
Watery Street 
Sheffield 
S3 7ES 

From the Secretary of State 
The Rt. Hon. Grant Shapps 

Great Minster House 
33 Horseferry Road 
London 
SW1P 4DR 

Web site: www.gov.uk/dft 

7 April 2021 

Thank you for your letter of 19 January enclosing a copy of your Regulation 
28 report also sent to Highways England, following the Inquest into the 
deaths of Alexandru Murgeanu and Jason Mercer.  

Firstly, I would like to place on record my sincere condolences for the deaths 
of Mr Mercer and Mr Murgeanu. It is a tragedy when any person dies on our 
roads and despite Great Britain having some of the safest roads in the world I 
remain concerned about the 1752 who were killed on our roads last year.1 I 
note that your Inquest found the primary cause of the fatal accident was the 
driving of a third-party driver and that this driver pleaded guilty to causing 
death by careless or inconsiderate driving.  

I take the safety of our roads very seriously. The Government and Highways 
England continually work hard to improve road safety.   

Smart Motorways were originally introduced under former Secretary of State 
John Prescott in 2001. Although per hundred million miles driven there 
appear to be fewer deaths on Smart Motorways than conventional ones2, I 
have shared the public’s unease about whether Smart Motorways could be 
made safer still. As a result, one of my earliest actions as Secretary of State 
for Transport in Autumn 2019 was to commission a review into Smart 
Motorways. 

1 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-annual-report-2019 
Road deaths per million inhabitants is lower in the UK than the majority of countries within Europe 
https://etsc.eu/14th-annual-road-safety-performance-index-pin-report/  
2 Page 15 para 1.14 - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/smart-motorway-evidence-stocktake-and-
action-plan  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan report 
(‘2020 Action Plan’), which was published in March 2020. One year on, I have 
received a progress report on existing actions and I am pressing Highways 
England to accelerate safety measures recommended in the 2020 Action 
Plan where possible to ensure that all lane running (ALR) motorways are the 
safest roads in the country. Highways England will publish this report shortly. 

The safety improvements in the 2020 Action Plan consisted of a package of 
18 measures, costing £500 million, including the rollout of a radar-based 
stopped vehicle detection (SVD) system across the ALR motorway network 
and an increase in the number of Highways England traffic officers to reduce 
the attendance time from an average of 17 minutes to 10 minutes. 
Furthermore, we have changed the law to enable automatic detection of Red 
X violations. Highways England is upgrading cameras across the smart 
motorway network to enable automatic detection of Red X violations which 
can then be enforced by the police. 

Moreover, I believe that a lack of consistency on different types of smart 
motorways might cause confusion and we have already committed to 
abolishing the "dynamic hard shoulder" (DHS) motorways, where the hard 
shoulder operates only part-time and is a live running lane the rest of the 
time. Highways England is converting all DHS smart motorways into all lane 
running to provide a less confusing environment for motorists.  

The stocktake also recognised the importance of raising awareness about 
what to do in the event of a breakdown and Highways England launched a 
£5m national campaign to remind road users to ‘Go Left’ last month. 
Highways England is also updating The Highway Code with new and 
improved safety information for users of motorways and other high-speed 
roads, with and without a hard shoulder, and the national consultation on this 
closed on 29 March 2021.  

You will have noted that the House of Commons Transport Select Committee 
announced on 26 February 2021 a new Inquiry into the roll-out and safety of 
Smart Motorways. My Department will be providing written evidence to help 
the inquiry in its work too. 

I understand that Highways England is addressing the points you raise in 
further detail. 

Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP 

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR TRANSPORT

REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS 

THIS RESPONSE IS BEING SENT TO: 

The  Senior  Coroner  for  the  Coroner  Area  of  South  Yorkshire  West,  Mr 
David Urpeth of The Medico-Legal Centre, Watery Street, Sheffield, S3 7ES 
in response to a ‘Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths’ following an 
inquest hearing into the deaths of Jason Lee Mercer and Alexandru Murgeanu 
that concluded on 18 January 2021. 

1  HIGHWAYS ENGLAND 

, Safety, Engineering and Standards Executive Director, and 
I am 
Chief Highways Engineer, responding on behalf of 
, Acting Chief 
Executive  of  Highways  England  Company  Limited  of  Bridge  House,  1  Walnut 
Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4LZ. 

2  CORONER’S MATTERS OF CONCERN 

The MATTERS OF CONCERN were identified as follows: –  

•  The obvious and foreseeable risk posed by the absence of a hard shoulder 

on smart motorways  

•  The confusion caused to motorists posed by a mixture of smart motorways 

and traditional motorways  

•  The need for better driver awareness on the use of smart motorways  

•  The  need  for  Highways  England  to  be  better  able  to  identify  stationary 

vehicles   

•  The need for better driver awareness of the need, where possible, to get over 

the crash barrier on all motorways, not just smart motorways  

•  The need for a wider review / inquiry into smart motorways.  

3  DETAILS OF ACTION TAKEN 

Highways England is the Government-owned company charged with operating, 
maintaining  and 
improving England's  motorways  and  major  A-roads.  
Responsibility  for  the  road  network  in  other  parts  of  the  UK  rests  with  the 
devolved administrations.  This response accordingly addresses the position in 
England. 

The introduction and continuing roll-out and development of smart motorways in 
England  has  been  Government  policy  since  2008.    Smart  motorways  provide 
substantially  more  road  capacity  than  conventional  motorways.  In  the  face  of 
increased traffic volumes, they reduce congestion, congestion related incidents 
and allow faster and more reliable journeys, without the greater disruption, cost 
and environmental impacts of traditional road widening.  At the same time, the 
Government’s  evidence  demonstrates  that  smart  motorways  have  in  fact 
improved  overall  safety  compared  to  the  conventional  motorways  they  have 
replaced. But not in every way, hence we are taking forward an Action Plan to 
further improve safety. 

1 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Safety is Highways England’s top priority.  According to the 2019 performance 
report published by CEDR (Conférence Européenne des Directeurs des Routes 
/  Conference  of  European  Directors  of  Roads),  motorways  in  the  UK  have  by 
some  margin  the  lowest  rate  of  fatal  accidents  of  any  roads  in  Europe1.    And 
smart motorways are statistically the safest roads in England. 

The  design  standard 
following  a 
comprehensive safety assessment and hazard analysis which demonstrated that 
they would be at least as safe as, or safer, than the conventional motorways they 
replaced. 

for  smart  motorways  was  adopted 

Each smart motorway scheme must also meet this same strict test: to be at least 
as  safe  as,  or  safer  than,  the  traditional  motorway  it  replaced.  We  carefully 
monitor all schemes after delivery to ensure that this standard is met in all cases. 

Smart  motorways  incorporate  a  number  of  important  features  designed  to 
improve the safety of people using them.  These include technology to monitor 
traffic flow, set variable speed limits to ease congestion, and give information to 
drivers, such as closing lanes via Red ‘X’. And smart motorways are safe, with 
the number of fatalities and serious injuries extremely low given the volume of 
traffic using them. 

However, risk cannot be eliminated entirely from roads.  Hard shoulders do not 
eliminate  the  risk  of  collision  and,  indeed,  8%  (or  1  in  12)  of  all  deaths  on 
motorways  are  on  hard  shoulders.  The  specific  risk  posed  by  the  absence  of 
hard shoulders on all lane running smart motorways, and in particular the greater 
risk  of  collision  between  stationary  and  moving  vehicles  has  been  recognised 
throughout.   But that specific  increased  risk  is  outweighed by  the  reduction  in 
other risks brought about by all lane running  smart motorways.  The evidence 
has demonstrated that all lane running smart motorways lead to fewer, not more, 
deaths. 

All  lane  running  schemes  are  designed  to,  and  do,  operate  extremely  safely 
without  the  need  for  stopped  vehicle  detection  (SVD)  technology.    But  SVD 
systems can make all lane running smart motorways safer still, by automatically 
detecting  stopped  vehicles  on  the  carriageway  and  thereby  enabling  a  more 
rapid  response.    In  2013  the  Highways  Agency  identified  an  automated  SVD 
system to further reduce the risks of vehicles stopped in live lanes, and this was 
trialled between 2014 and 2016.  Following successful trials, in September 2016 
it was decided that SVD would be included as standard in all new all lane running 
schemes entering the design stage. The standard requires a coverage of at least 
95%  of  the  carriageway,  with  a  minimum  detection  accuracy  of  80%  and  a 
maximum time to alert an operator of 30 seconds. 

A decision was subsequently taken to retrofit SVD to all existing all lane running 
smart  motorways.  This  is  an  ambitious,  highly  engaged  and  complex 
programme, which the Government and Highways England have committed to 
completing  by  the  end  of  2022. Work  on  the  M1  junctions  32-35a,  where  the 
incident  occurred,  has  started  and  the  technology  should  be  operational  by 
Summer 2021. 

1 https://www.cedr.eu/download/Publications/2020/CEDR-Technical-Report-2020-01-TEN-T-
2019-Performance-Report.pdf 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
 In October 2019, the Secretary of State for Transport asked his department to 
review the safety evidence in relation to smart motorways.  In March 2020, the 
Department  for  Transport  (DfT)  published  a  Smart  Motorway  Safety  Evidence 
Stocktake and Action Plan 2. 

The Action Plan set out 18 measures to make smart motorways even safer than 
they already are, and to tackle the negative public perception of, and build public 
confidence in, their safety: 

•  Ending the use of dynamic hard shoulders by March 2025 
•  Faster rollout of stopped vehicle detection - Highways England asked to 
deliver  this  in  36  months,  bringing  this  programme  forward  by  several 
years 

•  Faster attendance by more Highways England traffic officer patrols 
•  Committing  to  a  new  standard  for  spacing  of  places  to  stop  in  an 

emergency 

•  Delivering ten additional emergency areas on the M25 
•  Considering a national programme to install more emergency areas on 

existing smart motorways 
Investigating M6 Bromford viaduct and sections of the M1 

• 
•  Making emergency areas more visible  
•  More  traffic  signs  giving  the  distance  to  the  next  place  to  stop  in  an 

emergency 

•  More communication with drivers (committing an additional £5 million to 
national  and  targeted  communication  campaigns,  including  advice  on 
what to do in case of a breakdown) 

•  Displaying ‘report of obstruction’ messages 
•  Places to stop in an emergency shown on your satnav 
•  Making it easier to call for help if broken down 
•  Changed the law to enable automatic detection of Red ‘X’ violations and 

enforcement (3 points, £100 fine) using cameras  

•  An update of The Highway Code 
•  Closer working with the recovery industry 
•  Reviewing existing emergency areas where width is less than the current 

standard 

•  Reviewing the use of red flashing lights 

Highways England, working in partnership with the DfT and other stakeholders, 
has made and continues to make good progress in delivering on the Action Plan.  
In the 12 months since the Stocktake and Action Plan were published: 

•  We  have  progressed  our  commitment  to  end  the  use  of  dynamic  hard 
shoulders by March 2025.  At the time of this response, 7 schemes are 
at the preliminary design and survey stage. 

•  We  are  progressing  our  commitment  to  install  SVD  on  every  all  lane 
running  smart  motorway.  We  have  so  far  installed  SVD  on  the  M25 
junctions 5-6 and junctions 23-27 (which covers all 25 miles of  all lane 
running on the M25), M3 junctions 2-4a and M20 junctions 3-5.  Work has 
also begun on M1 junctions 32-35a.  In addition, we have completed a 

2https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_dat
a/file/936811/smart-motorway-safety-evidence-stocktake-and-action-plan.pdf 

3 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
 
 large-scale  trial  of  a  system  that  analyses  CCTV  images  to  identify 
stopped vehicles on the M4 junctions 19-20. 

•  We  are  on  target  to deliver  the  roll-out  of  changes  to  our  traffic  officer 
patrols to increase traffic officer presence on smart motorway sections, 
where the average distance between places to stop in an emergency is 
more than one mile. This supports the aim, by July 2021, to reduce the 
average  time  it  takes  traffic  officers  to  attend  incidents  from  17  to  10 
minutes.   

•  We have published a new design standard for the provision of places to 
stop in an emergency.  The new design standard (GD 301), which applies 
to all schemes entering the design stage, means that a place of relative 
safety will be spaced at ¾ miles apart, with a maximum of one mile where 
¾ mile spacing is not feasible3 

•  We  have  installed  10  additional  emergency  areas  on  the  M25  and  we 
have begun a programme to monitor their impact on live lane breakdown 
rates to understand if they have reduced the level of live lane stops 
•  We are developing delivery programmes for additional safety measures 
for the M6 Bromford viaduct and four sections of the M1 (including the 
location  of  this  incident).  To  inform  this  programme  we  commissioned 
independent reports and have undertaken feasibility studies of potential 
additional measures. 

•  We have upgraded all existing emergency areas on smart motorways to 

have bright orange surfacing and marked stopping areas.  

•  We have completed initial surveys in readiness for installing more signs 
in between places to stop in an emergency.  We expect to install around 
1,000 new signs. 

•  We  have  continued  to  run  public  information  campaigns  focusing  on 
specific  elements  of  motorway  driving.    In  2020  these  included  activity 
urging drivers not to drive in lanes closed by Red ‘X’ signs, to adhere to 
variable  speed  limits  and  to  keep  left  (February/March);  a  summer 
campaign encouraging drivers going on holiday or day trips to check their 
the  risk  of  breakdowns 
vehicles  before  setting  out, 
(July/August); and a campaign discouraging tailgating, a factor in around 
1 
in  8  casualties  on  England’s  motorways  and  major  A-roads 
(September/October).   

to  reduce 

•  We have also committed an additional £5 million this year on a campaign 
to improve driver awareness further.  On 10 March 2021 we launched a 
national  targeted  campaign  to  increase  road  user  confidence  and 
awareness of what to do in the event of a breakdown.  This included TV 
advertisement, additional short films, and print and digital advertising to 
ensure  maximum  reach  amongst  the  target  audience.  The  campaign 
launch was subject to changes in Government travel guidance and was 
accordingly postponed from January 2021.  Key messages conveyed by 
the campaign includes: 

The advice to drivers who experience a problem with their vehicle is to leave the 
motorway if possible. But if that is not possible Highways England recommends 
found  on  our  website  here: 
the 
https://highwaysengland.co.uk/road-safety/breakdowns/ 

following,  which  can  also  be 

3 with some exceptions where not feasible to construct additional emergency areas, such as 
where junctions intersect or on bridges   

4 

 
 
 
                                                 
 If your vehicle has a problem, or you get into trouble on a motorway, stay calm 
and try to exit at the next junction or motorway service area. If that’s not possible: 

Go left  

o  put your left indicator on and move into an emergency area, onto 
a  hard  shoulder, motorway  service  area, left-hand  verge  or  A-
road lay-by.   

o  switch your hazard warning lights on, even during the day. If it’s 

dark, use side lights and in poor visibility use fog lights as well    

o  on a motorway without a hard shoulder, it should be possible for 
most  vehicles experiencing  a  problem  to  reach an  emergency 
area. These  are  spaced regularly, and are  marked  by  a  clearly 
visible  orange  road  surface  and blue  signs  featuring  an  orange 
SOS telephone symbol.   

Get safe   
o 

if it is safe to do so, and you can get out with any passengers, 
exit your vehicle on the side furthest from traffic. If it is not safe 
to do so, stay in your vehicle and wait for help. 

o  keep  well  away  from  moving  traffic and  your  own  vehicle.  Get 
behind a safety barrier where there is one, and where it is safe to 
do so. If you’re on a verge, be aware of any unseen hazards such 
as uneven ground or debris.   

Get help  

o  contact  Highways  England  on  0300  123  5000  and  then  a 

o 

breakdown recovery provider.   
if you are unable to exit your vehicle and get to a safe place, have 
stopped in a live traffic lane or feel your life is in danger, stay in 
your vehicle with your seatbelts and hazard lights on and call 999 
immediately.  

The Highways England website also includes information on how to drive 
on  motorways:  https://highwaysengland.co.uk/road-safety/how-to-drive-
on-motorways/ 

•  We have begun rolling out automated “report of obstruction” messages 
on signals when SVD technology identifies a potential incident. “Report 
of  obstruction”  messages  were  enabled  on  the  M3  junctions  2-4a  in 
December 2020. 
In  March  2021,  we  made  location  information  for  all  smart  motorway 
emergency areas available to satnav providers 

• 

•  We  have  engaged  with  car  manufacturers  to  help  build  greater 
awareness of eCall (SOS, which has been fitted to new cars as standard 
from April 2018) and bCall (roadside assistance) functions in newer cars.  
•  We  have  begun  to  upgrade  HADECS  enforcement  cameras  and 
associated  technology  to  provide  automated  detection  to  facilitate  the 
enforcement  of  Red  ‘X’  violations  across  the  whole  smart  motorway 
network.  As at the date of this response we have upgraded 39% of all 
cameras.  The Road Traffic Offenders (Prescribed Devices) Order 2019 
came into force on 10 June 2019 to enable recordings to be used in the 
enforcement of Red 'X' violations (3 points, £100 fine). 

•  We have drafted new provisions for The Highway Code to provide more 
guidance  for  motorists  driving  on  high-speed  roads,  including  smart 

5 

 
  
 
 
 
 
 motorways.  A  4-week  consultation  on  these  proposed  amendments 
commenced in early March 2021 and finished end of March 2021.  
•  We  have  signed  a  strategic  partnership  agreement  to  strengthen  our 
relationship  with  the  independent  recovery  industry,  setting  out  a 
common and agreed set of safe operating procedures for use across the 
industry  when  helping  road  users  who  get  into  difficulty  on  smart 
motorways. 

•  We  have  commissioned  an  independent  review  of  the  widths  of 
operational  emergency  areas.    This  found  that  13  were  less  than  4.4 
metres wide, but that all 13 are wider than the 3.3 metre width of a hard 
shoulder. We are now working on completing safety risk assessments to 
help guide our next steps for widening any narrow emergency areas.  
•  The  Department  for  Transport  has  completed  its  review  of  existing 
evidence relating to the use of red flashing lights. Ministers have agreed 
to implement off-road trials to understand the likely impact of allowing the 
use of red flashing lamps for road recovery operators, and to work with 
the  recovery  industry  to  promote  best  working  practices  and  develop 
specific industry guidance on vehicle lighting. 

On 26 February 2021, the Transport Select Committee publicly announced that 
it would conduct an inquiry into the roll-out and safety of smart motorways, with 
a particular focus on: 

•  The benefits of smart motorways, for instance to reduce congestion on 

busy sections of motorway, and how necessary they are 

•  The  safety  of  smart  motorways,  the  adequacy  of  safety  measures  in 

place and how safety could be improved 

•  Whether all lane running motorways are the most suitable type of smart 

motorway 

•  Public confidence in smart motorways and how this could be improved 
•  The impact of smart motorways on the usage and safety of other roads 

in the strategic road network 

•  The  effectiveness  of  Highways  England’s  delivery  of  the  smart 
motorways programme, the impact of construction works, and the costs 
of implementation 

Highways  England  welcomes  this  inquiry,  and  is  committed  to  assisting  the 
Committee in whatever way it can. 

Highways England has attended two previous smart motorway Transport Select 
Committees in 2016 and 2019.  

4  DETAILS OF FURTHER ACTION PROPOSED 

Highways  England  is  committed  to  ensuring  that  all  roads  for  which  it  is 
responsible remain extremely safe and, indeed, to continuing to make them safer 
still.  As part of this, we will continue to deliver on the Smart Motorway Safety 
Action Plan.  One year on from its publication we have made good progress and 
we will continue with this important programme of work. 

•  We will end the use of dynamic hard shoulder motorways by March 2025 
by  converting  the  current  63  miles  of  dynamic  hard  shoulder  into  a 
permanent  traffic  lane  providing  greater  consistency  for  motorists  and 
reducing the potential for confusion.  

6 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •  We will continue to retrofit SVD to all existing all lane running motorways 

and will complete this programme by the end of 2022. 

•  We will continue with our programme to increase traffic officer presence 
on smart motorways, where the average distance between places to stop 
in an emergency is more than one mile, and reduce the attendance times. 
•  We  will  continue  to  ensure  that  all  newly  designed  smart  motorways 
starting  design  from  November  2020  conform  to  the  new  design 
standard,  including  in  relation  to  the  spacing  of  places  to  stop  in  an 
emergency. 

•  We will continue to monitor and assess the evidence relating to live lane 
breakdowns,  and  to  safety  on  smart  motorways  in  general,  and  make 
necessary design changes (including increasing the frequency of places 
to stop) if the evidence supports it. 

•  We  will  complete  our  programme  of  installing  more  signs  in  between 

places to stop in an emergency. 

•  We will continue to invest to improve driver awareness.   
•  We will we will work with the DfT to review whether the emergency area 
data we made available to satnav providers is being shared with drivers. 
•  We will continue to work with stakeholders to agree the key messages 
for a public information campaign focusing on the use of eCall (SOS) and 
bCall (breakdown assistance) buttons in vehicles which will run later in 
2021. 

•  We will, in partnership with the DfT, publish the updated Highway Code 

by March 2022.  

•  We will continue rolling out changes to automate “report of obstruction” 
messages on variable message signs when SVD technology identifies a 
stopped vehicle. 

•  We  will  complete,  by  July  2023,  our  programme  to  upgrade  HADECS 
enforcement cameras and associated technology to provide automated 
detection  to  facilitate  the  enforcement  of  Red  ‘X’  violations  across  the 
whole smart motorway network. 

•  We will complete our programme to widen emergency areas which are 

narrower than the current standard.  

5  TIMETABLE FOR ACTION 

Future Action 

Date 

Publish the findings of our safety reviews for the M6 J5-
6 and M1 J10-13, J30-35, and J39-42. 

June 2021 

Implement action plans to reduce Traffic Officer 
attendance time from an average of 17 minutes to 10 
minutes. 

July 2021 

More communication with drivers – second run of 
campaign launched in March 2021 

November 2021 

Complete the monitoring of live lane breakdowns on 
the M25 after the installation of 10 new emergency 
areas. 

December 2021 

7 

 
 
 
 SVD operational on the M1 J32-35a. 

Summer 2021 

Deliver a public information campaign communicating 
the benefits of eCall and bCall functions to road users 

Autumn 2021 

Update of The Highway Code  

March 2022 

Explore the feasibility of a national retrofit programme 
of emergency areas 

April 2022 

Complete national rollout of SVD on existing ALR 
sections 

Automate the display of 'report of obstruction' 
messages 

End of 2022 

March 2023 

Install additional traffic signs giving the distance to the 
next place to stop in an emergency 

March 2023 

Complete the upgrade of HADECS3 cameras to 
enforce Red ‘X’ compliance 

End the use of dynamic hard shoulders. 
Work with the DfT to review whether the emergency 
area data we made available to satnav providers is 
being shared with drivers 

July 2023 

March 2025 

Ongoing 

6  SAFETY OF ROAD USERS 

Every road death is a tragic loss of life. We are determined to reduce the number 
of fatal incidents, and injuries, on our roads and we want everyone who travels 
or works on any of our roads to feel confident and safe. 

Although  roads,  especially  high-speed 
risk-free 
environments, our absolute priority is the reduction of road deaths and serious 
injuries on our network.  

roads,  can  never  be 

This is why we invest in road safety initiatives and public awareness campaigns, 
to  help  prevent  death  and  injury  and  to  help  give  drivers  the  information  they 
need, to have safe journeys. This is in addition to information provided in other 
areas, for example The Highway Code. 

The Smart Motorway Safety Evidence Stocktake and Action Plan published by 
the Government in March 2020 set out 18 measures to improve safety and build 
greater public confidence in smart motorways. We welcomed the stocktake and 
action plan as an opportunity to further improve the safety of smart motorways.  

We are constantly listening to motorists, continually assessing how we can make 
motorways safer for those who use them.  

We urge road users to act safely and sensibly, including by informing themselves 
about what to do in an emergency4, who to contact, and how to avoid dangerous 
situations where possible, thereby minimising the risks to themselves and other 

4  The  Highways  England  website  provides  guidance  on  what  to  do  in  case  of  a 
breakdown on any motorway: https://highwaysengland.co.uk/road-safety/breakdowns/ 

8 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
 
 road users.  We have recently launched our biggest ever, high profile multi-media 
road safety campaign to help drivers know what to do if they break down on any 
motorway, including one without a hard shoulder. 

Respectfully,  we  would  ask  that  coroners  use  the  means  at  their  disposal  to 
reinforce  this  message  as  appropriate.    I  have  previously  written  to  the  Chief 
Coroner to make this request of coroners. 

Regarding this incident, we understand, following the initial collision, Mr Mercer 
drove his car for about 500m, and stopped in a live lane close to a sign indicating 
the nearest emergency telephone was one mile away. 

Sadly, as you found at the hearing, and as 
remarked when passing sentence, 

of this tragic incident.  

 driving was the main cause 

We  want  to  prevent  further  tragedies. We  have  listed  earlier  in this  report  the 
measures we have taken since the publication of the stocktake. We believe our 
actions are having an effect and will continue to make a difference.  

Independent analysis provided by Transport Focus from the National Road 
User Satisfaction Survey over the period 2014/15 to 2019/20 demonstrated 
year-on-year improvements in the awareness of: 

•  Emergency areas (58% in 2019/20 compared to 36% in 2014/15); 
•  Use of the hard shoulder as an extra lane during busy times (74% in 

2019/20 compared to 64% in 2014/15); 

•  Understanding when there is no hard shoulder when it permanently 
converts to a traffic lane (64% in 2019/20 compared to 39% in 
2014/15).  

But  we are  not  complacent. The  deaths  of  Mr  Mercer  and  Mr  Murgeanu were 
tragic. Our deepest sympathies remain with their loved ones. 

We remain committed to improving communication with road users and to taking 
steps to further improve the safety of smart motorways. 

8 

06 April 2021                Signed:  

Safety, Engineering and Standards 

Executive Director and Chief Highways Engineer, 
on behalf of 
, Acting Chief Executive of 
Highways England 

9