Coffin protest takes place in London after smart motorway deaths

Watch a report by Emily Knight.

The widow of a man who died when his van was struck by a lorry on a smart motorway has led a convoy of coffins on a protest march calling for them to be scrapped.

Claire Mercer's husband Jason was killed on the M1 in 2019 after being hit by a lorry. He'd been involved in a minor collision and had to stop along with the other vehicle. 

The motorway had no hard shoulder - but a refuge lane further up the road, a lorry crashed into them before they were able to get to it.

Smart motorways are used to reduce congestion in particularly busy areas by removing the hardshoulder and allowing traffic to use it. 

Now Claire Mercer has set up the campaign group 'Smart Motorways Kill'. Today they held a single file procession of thirty-eight coffins, each representing a death on a smart motorway in the last five years.

The campaigners marched to the department for Transport, calling for an end to the system which can see the hard shoulder turned into a live lane to help reduce congestion.

The National Highways, previously known as Highways England said these methods include driver education programmes and stopping the use of the dynamic hard shoulder, which can be switched in and out of use when needed, by 2025.

A truckstop on the M1 at junction 13 near Milton Keynes, drivers said they do have concerns for their safety.

Geoff Walller a HGV driving instructor from Dunstable said: "I agree with the idea of smart motorways in the fact that they are really good at lessening the build up of traffic, but to be honest smart motorways need hard shoulders, as simple as, without having somewhere to pull off the motorway it's dangerous breaking down in a live lane and is asking for an accident to happen."

Campaigners say the only way to stop more accidents is to bring back the hardshoulder.