The Sunday Telegraph - 01.09.2019

4 ***^ Sunday 1 September 2019 The Sunday Telegraph

M1 Northbound

M

WOODALL SERVICES

C D

A B

MEADOWHALL

1 miles

Widow challenges ‘smart motorway’ death toll

By Steve Bird

Claire Mercer is, she concedes, an
unlikely expert on the minutiae of
England’s motorway network.
Sifting through dog-eared files of
Commons transport select committee
reports and statistics, the 43-year-old
buyer for a Sheffield glass furnace
company wishes she had never
needed to acquire that knowledge.
On the morning of June 7, she kissed
her husband Jason goodbye as he
headed off to his work as contracts
manager at a construction company.
“Shortly afterwards I sat at home
reading online about a horrific
three-car crash on the M1,” said Mrs
Mercer. “He would always message me
to say he had arrived safely. I started
messaging him saying I was worried
because of the bad accident.”
When she received no reply, she
telephoned police, gave his car
registration and was told they were
running it through the system in
connection with that crash four hours
earlier.
“I looked out of the window and saw
two officers wearing hi-vis jackets
walking to my door. I knew,” she said.
Her husband of nearly 10 years and

Her husband’s death has

forced Claire Mercer to

battle for the truth about

our road network

Honeybees trained to sniff

out drugs and explosives

By Sunday Telegraph Reporter

HONEYBEES are being trained to sniff

out drugs and explosives and could be

ready to be used in five years, a British

academic training them has said.

The bees are taught to associate the

smell of explosives with the smell of

pollen and are being trained to locate

other dangerous materials like pesti-

cides and radioactive metals.

Ross Gillanders, a senior researcher

at the University of St Andrews, is be-

hind the programme, which releases

bees near suspected minefields.

He trains bees using a Pavlovian as-

sociation between the scent of explo-

sives and sugar water to trick them into

thinking the scent belongs to nectar.

Trained bees can then detect the odour

from up to a kilometre away.

Researchers then monitor the area

where the bees are released using “pre-

concentrators” in their hives.

“At the moment we know they can

detect the landmines from about 100m

but that should go up to kilometres. It

should happen immediately once

they’re trained and released,” Dr Gil-

landers told The Times.

An issue arises when bees find ex-

plosive materials but are not rewarded

with nectar as they expect to be and

thus cease to hunt for the dangerous

materials.

“They get used to it so they realise

after a couple of days that they have

been hoodwinked. Every few days you

have to retrain them but hopefully by

then they have found the explosives.”

Bees are also unpredictable and dur-

ing one field test, Dr Gillanders said he

was swarmed and stung 20 times while

not protected by a suit on his ankle.

One of Dr Gillanders’ colleagues pre-

viously used bees in mapping out ex-

clusion zones around Chernobyl.

A 2015 research paper by the Univer-

sity of Cologne claimed that bees could

replace sniffer dogs at airports.

Bees are cheaper and easier to train

than dogs and require less upkeep and

feeding. Sniffer dogs can also perform

poorly in unfavourable conditions.

Female Forces veterans tell

of sex assaults while on duty

By Steve Bird

AN ARMED Services veterans’ charity
is urging the Government to do more
to protect female soldiers after a survey
found more than half of women who
had served in the RAF, Army or Navy
were sexually assaulted.
Forward Assist, an organisation in
the North East of England, conducted
interviews with 100 female veterans
expecting to find the greatest challenge
they faced in civilian life was overcom-
ing post traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) following recent conflicts.
Instead, they discovered 52 out of
100 women questioned said they had
been sexually assaulted while serving.
Meanwhile, 26 women claimed they
had been physically assaulted, 66 said
they were bullied and 49 of them ad-
mitted they had experienced “emo-
tional trauma”.
A total of 58 per cent reported hav-
ing mental health issues when they left
the Armed Forces, but 60 of them said
they received little support when retir-

ing from the military. Ministry of De-

fence (MoD) statistics show it

conducted 153 investigations into of-

fences contrary to the Sexual Offences

Act, of those 18 were historical.

Last year, an anonymous survey of

2,591 women by the Army focusing on

sexual harassment found 326 women

recorded an upsetting experience, of

whom three per cent – about 77 females

• made an allegation of rape.
  While there is no suggestion For-
  ward Assist’s figures are reflected
  among the current female serving pop-
  ulation in the Armed Forces, Tony
  Wright, a former Royal Marine and so-
  cial worker who founded the charity,
  said he was “shocked” by the research.
  “I was expecting to find the women
  were suffering combat-related stress,
  such as PTSD. But I didn’t expect this
  level of military sexual trauma.”
  An MoD spokesman said: “Sexual
  harassment in any form is not tolerated
  in the Armed Forces, and we urge any
  victim of abuse, whether serving or
  veteran, to come forward.”

another driver, Alexandru Mergeanu,

had been killed after they pulled over

following a minor collision on the

northbound M1 near Sheffield.

Because the hard shoulder on the

so-called “smart motorway” had been

turned into a fourth lane, Mr Mercer,

44, and Mr Mergeanu, 22, had tucked

their cars in against the barrier to

share their insurance details.

With no lay-by to shield them from

oncoming traffic, a lorry hit their

vehicles and killed both men.

“Jason and Alexandru’s deaths

proves these motorways are anything

but smart,” said Mrs Mercer.

“Two people died that day. Two

families have been utterly devastated

because the hard shoulder had been

turned into a live lane. It’s that simple.”

She weeps as she explains how “at

least” two others have died on the

northbound carriageway of the M

smart motorway in alarmingly similar

circumstances in just 10 months.

Last September, a 62-year-old

female passenger was killed after

leaving the Nissan Qashqai she was

travelling in when it broke down on

the M1 near Sheffield.

In March, Derek Jacobs, 83, a retired

engineer, was killed when his

Volkswagen Crafter was hit by a coach

after he stopped with a puncture in the

first lane of the northbound M1 in

Derbyshire.

At that point, Mr Jacobs’s son, Matt,

50, predicted smart motorway deaths

“would happen again and again – but

nobody will put two and two

together”. His prediction came true.

Mrs Mercer, from Rotherham, South

Yorks, wants a judicial review to

establish whether, as both she and Mr

Jacobs believe, there will be yet more

deaths because motorists have been

“robbed” of the hard shoulder.

Pointing to files of research, she says

Highways England and the

Government are in the grip of

“collective madness”. They have

promised to nearly double smart

motorways from 416 to 788 miles by

2025.

Her concern is the majority of the

new routes will be so-called “all lane

running” motorways – where the hard

shoulder is transformed into a live or

fourth lane.

She wants to prove Highway

England’s decision to remove the hard

shoulder without providing adequate

and efficient protection is a breach of

the company’s duty to make

motorways safer – and consequently

amounts to corporate manslaughter.

Picking up a 2016 Commons

transport committee report she turns

to a page in which the Department of

Transport is accused of being

“disingenuous” in how it presented

risks posed by the removal of the hard

shoulder.

She said: “If they take away the hard

shoulder, they must have systems in

place that protect motorists. These

tragic deaths show those systems have

failed repeatedly.”

Smart motorways rely on variable

speed limits being imposed from

gantries, which can also display “red

X” signs ordering motorists to move

out of a lane if a peril has been

detected. Both systems also raise

money for the Treasury through

fines for those who fail to heed

instructions.

A Motorway Incident

Detection and Automatic

Signalling system (Midas)

monitors congestion and

spots stranded cars through

CCTV, a radar system and

detectors built into

carriageways.

Mrs Mercer added: “Police

told me the lane had remained open

until after they were killed. This

means either the safety backup

systems did not detect the two static

vehicles or if they were detected, it

was not spotted in time and the lane

remained open.

“Highways England needs to

explain whether the backup systems

failed to save Jason and Alexandru. At

best it could be negligent. At worst it

may verge on criminal.

“There was also no emergency

refuge area nearby. Why not?”

Highways England declined to

comment on Mr Mercer’s death

because a police investigation is

ongoing. A 39-year-old man was

arrested on suspicion of causing death

by dangerous driving and has been

released on bail.

A Highways England spokesman

said: “Safety is our top priority. The

evidence shows that where all lane

running has been introduced,

there have been fewer

collisions and congestion

has reduced despite an

increased number of

vehicles using them.”

Meanwhile, Mrs

Mercer fears her

husband’s death will

one day be among the

statistics pored over by

other relatives trying

to understand how a

loved one died on a smart

motorway.

The cost

of Britain’s

smart

motorways

4,

Number of miles of

“extra capacity”

Highways England

wants to add by

introducing smart

motorways

3 mins

Target time to close

a lane with a red ‘X’

sign after a stranded

vehicle is spotted

£2bn

Cost of congestion

on the motorway

network every year.

One quarter of all

congestion is

caused by incidents

or accidents

2006

The first smart

motorway was

introduced on

the M42. Smart

motorways have

been introduced

on the M1, M6, M3,

M4, M5 and M

800m

Commons Transport

Select Committee

recommendation

for how far apart

Emergency Refuge

Areas (ERAs) – lay-

bys protected

from oncoming

traffic – should

be placed. Highways

England says

ERAs are now just

over a mile apart,

with the furthest

being 1.5 miles

A&B

Alexandru Mergeanu

(top), 22, and Jason

Mercer, 44, were

killed in

June 2019 when they

got out of their cars

to swap insurance

details on the M

near Sheffield before

being hit by a lorry

D

A 62-year-old

woman, who has

not been named,

was killed in

September 2018

when the Nissan

she was a passenger

in broke down on

the M1 near Sheffield.

She and the driver

got out. Another

car struck the

Nissan before it

hit the woman

C

Derek Jacobs, 83,

was killed when

he stopped on the

M1 in Derbyshire

in March 2019 after

getting a puncture.

His vehicle was

struck by a coach

and Mr Jacobs

was crushed

‘Did the

backup

systems fail

to save

them? At

best, it could

be negligent,

at worst,

verging on

criminal’

Body found West Yorkshire Police have confirmed the

discovery in a canal while searching for missing 18-year-

old Kamau McCallum-James, who was last seen August 21.

HUDDERSFIELD EXAMINER / MEN MEDIA

Special report

Claire Mercer, inset,

read online of the

M1 crash that killed

her husband. The

graphic below

shows the four

incidents that

occurred on smart

motorways

Stopping with a puncture can put drivers

in danger of death or serious injury

turning the hard shoulder into a

live lane can leave 999 crews

struggling to reach crash scenes.

Edmund King, the AA’s

president, has repeatedly urged the

Government to reconsider its

continued commitment to them.

“From the outset of ‘all lane

running’ smart motorways, we

argued the idea was fatally flawed,”

he said. “We have said avoidable

deaths will happen when the hard

shoulder is permanently removed.

“Highways England has asked

drivers to trust them, but that trust

has well and truly worn out.

“Inaccurate monitoring,

stretches of motorway not covered

by cameras and signs that

frequently fail are just part of the

fatal flaws caused by expanding

motorways on the cheap.”

Ever since their introduction in

2006, there has been a growing

clamour of opposition to smart

motorways.

Some fear they are little more

than cash cows for the Government

as increasing numbers of speed

cameras capture motorists who fail

to obey changing speed limits or

red “X” signs barring drivers from

a specific lane.

But the greatest controversy

surrounds Highways England’s

insistence that the smart

motorways – even those where the

hard shoulder has been turned into

a fourth lane – are safer than

conventional ones.

Matt Jacobs, whose father Derek,

83, was killed in March when his

van came to a stop on the M1 smart

motorway before being hit by a

coach, believes removing the

hardline defies all logic.

“Hard shoulders have been a

safety feature of motorways since

the Sixties when there was a

fraction of the traffic today,” he told

The Sunday Telegraph. “With today’s

volume of traffic, the decision to

remove them is murderous

negligence and incompetence.”

There are also concerns that

Campaign Opponents say

roads are just cash cows

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