The lack of a hard shoulder on a section of South Yorkshire’s smart motorway has contributed to the death of a grandmother, a coroner has ruled.
Mother-of-five Nargus Begum, 62, got out of a Nissan Qashqai being driven by her husband after it stalled on the M1 in September 2018.
A Mercedes collided with the stationary car, causing it to plow into them.
Chief Medical Examiner Nicola Mundy said the fact that no driver reported the stranded car also contributed to her death.
Charting a conclusion on a “road traffic collision”, she told the Doncaster Coroner on Friday that the drivers of 153 vehicles before the crash had passed the vehicle without alerting the National Highways.
Ms Mundy said: “The lack of a hard shoulder and the failure to report to National Highways to notify them of the stationary vehicle so lane closures could be put in place both contributed to Ms Begum’s death.”
The four-day investigation revealed how the Nissan passed an emergency shelter by about 250 meters on September 9, 2022 and became stranded on the live inside lane, going undetected for 16 minutes and 21 seconds before the accident.
Ms Mundy expressed concern that many members of the public seem to mistakenly believe that the dozens of cameras installed on smart highways are constantly monitored by control room staff.
She said a witness told the inquest he did not report the stationary Nissan because he believed it would be picked up by the cameras.
A number of National Highways directors and employees, including Chief Executive Nick Harris, told the coroner that this was not practical, and the coroner asked if more could be done to educate the public about this fact.
She said she would write to National Highways about this public education issue.
Mr Harris told the inquiry how technology that can detect more than 80% of stranded stationary vehicles within 20 seconds has been rolled out on all so-called All Lane Running highways and would be completed by the end of this month.
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