A grieving widow will today beg the court that convicted her husband’s killer to spare him jail as she blames smart motorways for the fatal collision between the pair’s vehicles.
Claire Mercer’s husband Jason, 44, and Alexandru Murgeanu, 22, had stopped following a minor collision on a section of the M1 where the hard shoulder had been turned into a live lane near Sheffield.
They failed to reach an emergency refuge and tucked in against the crash barrier, getting out to share insurance details in June last year.
An 18-tonne lorry driven by Prezemyslaw Zbigniew Szuba which joined the motorway shortly behind them ploughed into their vehicles, launching Mr Murgeanu’s van into them and killing them both instantly.
Mr Szuba, 40, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving without due care and attention at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court last month and is due to be sentenced at the city’s Crown Court later on Monday.
Since her husband’s death, Claire, from Rotherham, has campaigned against smart motorways, raising more than £12,000 through a CrowdJustice campaign.
She believes he would not have died had there still been a hard shoulder and vowed to use her victim personal statement at the sentencing hearing to argue that Mr Szuba should be spared jail.
Speaking after the lorry driver’s last court appearance, she told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘I don’t believe the correct person is taking responsibility.
‘The events would not have taken place if England’s highways were run with the correct priorities in mind.’
Claire has also instructed lawyers to seek a judicial review into smart motorways and prosecute Highways England for corporate manslaughter.
Prosecutors told magistrates last month Mr Szuba’s lorry was not speeding and there was no suggestion he was intoxicated.
His defence lawyers said he had only just joined the motorway at the previous junction and ‘it was only for a matter of seconds that the (stationary) vehicles were visible’.
The evidence indicated Mr Szuba was driving ‘normally’ and within the speed limit in the moments before the crash, they added.
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