mother was killed on a smart motorway after her car broke down and was unable to get out of the inside lane, an inquest heard.
Nargis Begum, 62, was killed when her car broke down on a section of the M1 in South Yorkshire which had no hard shoulder.
The mother of five was outside the vehicle on the inside lane of the motorway when she was hit by her car, which was propelled into her by a lorry near Woodall services in September 2018.
Telegraph reports that despite Mrs Begum being stranded for 16 minutes and 21 seconds before the collision, Highways England, which has since rebranded as National Highways, failed to spot the breakdown so the lane could be closed to traffic.
Mrs Begum was being driven by her husband, Mohammed Bashir, who survived. They were travelling from Derby to Sheffield in their daughter’s car after paying a visit to friends.
‘I heard a loud bang and couldn’t see my wife’
On the first day of an inquest into Mrs Begum’s death at Doncaster Coroner’s Court, Mr Bashir, a taxi driver, said his wife was unable to get over the safety barrier after their car lost power and he was forced to pull into the far left lane.
In his written statement read out by court staff, Mr Bashir said: “I heard a loud bang and couldn’t see my wife.”
At first, he said he thought she may have walked further down the motorway to get over the barrier.
Mrs Begum’s daughter, Saima Aktar, said her mother was “truly a blooming flower in our lives”, who was “caring, loving and selfless” and had an infectious smile.
She described her as the heart and soul of the family and said her father has “never been the same” since the fatal accident.
Ms Aktar added: “My heart aches for just one more day with my mum. Can anyone give me that?”
A pathologist report gave Mrs Begum’s cause of death as multiple injuries resulting from the impact of the vehicle. She died at the scene.
Richard Chapman, who drove past Mrs Begum and her husband’s stranded vehicle before the collision, told the inquest that he had only three or four seconds to register the breakdown and move into a lane to the right.
Mr Chapman was driving at around 70mph with his wife, son and his son’s two friends inside the car, the inquest heard.
He said there was a car travelling beside him in lane two as he approached the breakdown location, and if that car had not moved into lane three, he would not have been able to avoid Mrs Begum and her husband.
His wife told him they should alert someone about the breakdown. Mr Chapman said he told her that the smart motorway technology should register the incident and officials would react.
Expressing his concerns about smart motorways, Mr Chapman said: “You’ve got to make that assumption that somebody, somewhere, is using those cameras effectively.”
Smart motorway expansion halted for safety review
In February, South Yorkshire Police confirmed that National Highways will not face a corporate manslaughter charge over Mrs Begum’s death.
Smart motorways are designed to maintain flow of traffic and were introduced in England in 2002. The design in which there is no hard shoulder came into use in 2014.
A coroner previously concluded that the roads “present an ongoing risk of future deaths”. The comment was made following an inquest into the deaths of Jason Mercer, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, who were also killed in a smart motorway accident on the M1.
The men had pulled into the inside live lane to exchange insurance details following a minor collision near Sheffield in 2019. They were killed when a lorry ploughed into them.
The Government has halted the expansion of smart motorways which have all lanes running while a review is carried out into their safety.
