Smart motorways: Woman unable to get over barrier before death crash

A woman who was killed on a smart motorway after her car broke down was unable to get over the barrier before she died, an inquest heard.

Nargis Begum, 62, from Sheffield, was travelling on a stretch of the M1 with no hard shoulder near Woodall Services on 9 September 2018.

The Nissan Qashqai car, driven by her husband, "suddenly" dropped speed and pulled into the far left lane.

She died when a Mercedes collided with the Nissan, causing it plough into her.

An inquest at Doncaster Coroner's Court on Tuesday heard Mrs Begum and her husband, Mohammed Bashir, 69, were driving from Derby to their home in Darnall in Sheffield when the car slowed down.

The couple had borrowed the car from their daughter, Saima Aktar, 40, as Mrs Begum suffered from arthritis and preferred to travel in the Nissan, the hearing was told.

When the car broke down Mr Bashir pulled over into what he thought was the hard shoulder, but which was in fact a live lane of the smart motorway.

In a statement he said he put on the car's hazard warning lights and the couple got out of the car.

Mr Bashir climbed over the barrier and phoned his daughter, but Mrs Begum was unable to get over the barrier as it was too high.

He said when he looked back at the car he could not see his wife and assumed she had gone to cross the barrier further along the road.

The inquest heard that as he was going back to the car to get the recovery documents, another car hit the Nissan.

Mr Bashir said another car then hit the vehicle that had crashed into them.

The inquest heard he saw Mrs Begum lying on the ground and Mr Bashir said in his statement: "I don't want to describe what I saw as it is still too upsetting."

A statement from the couple's daughter, Saima Aktar, said she had been on her way to pick her parents up after learning about the crash when she called Mr Bashir, who said: "Sweetheart, the situation has changed, there's been an accident and your mum's been hurt."

Ms Aktar added: "This accident has broken our family but we are united in not wanting this to happen to another family.

"We all believe the smart motorway system is dangerous and flawed - if there had been a hard shoulder my dad would have ended up there."

In February it was confirmed National Highways will not face a corporate manslaughter charge over Mrs Begum's death.

A smart motorway is a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and - hopefully - ease congestion. There are three main types:

Controlled, which have a permanent hard shoulder, but use technology such as variable speed limits to adjust traffic flows

Dynamic, where the hard shoulder can be opened up at peak times and used as an extra lane; when this happens, the speed limit is reduced to 60mph

All-lane running, where the hard shoulder has been permanently removed to provide an extra lane; emergency refuge areas are provided at regular intervals for cars that get into trouble

All three models use overhead gantries to direct drivers. Variable speed limits are introduced to control traffic flow when there is congestion, or if there is a hazard ahead. These limits are controlled by speed cameras.

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