A student was killed and two others left in comas after their university sports trip ended in tragedy when their vehicle broke down on a smart motorway, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Zahid Ahmed, 19, died when the people carrier he was in came to a “stop” but did not reach an emergency refuge area before a lorry hit it. Four other Middlesex University students in the vehicle were hospitalised, a sixth suffered less severe injuries.
They were returning from a universities pool competition in Birmingham on the southbound M1 near Luton where the hard shoulder was opened to traffic.
A relative of one student who suffered brain injuries has said an investigation is needed to establish whether removing the hard shoulder and providing refuge areas roughly every mile puts stranded motorists at risk.
Read full story here> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/18/talented-university-student-becomes-latest-stranded-smart-motorway/?fbclid=IwAR2wEfsNEJZF_aspETh2HEeCfQHXzn2T24gbbW_lBPoRK1KNdZ_El0r4FPQ
PDF Copy Here >Talented university student
Hi Claire. just watched your interview on BBC and looked at your website. Firstly let me say how sorry I was to hear about the loss of your husband. I am a Driving Instructor and trainer… I cover about 40k miles per year a lot on motorways and there is nothing smart about these new ones. How on earth anyone thought when designing them that they would be safer is beyond believe. I would always lend my support in getting them reversed.
Yours.
Paul Grice. ADI
Thank you for the support keeping busy with the campaign helps, but I just don’t understand how anyone though removing essential safety features to save ten minutes travel time was acceptable
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/smart-motorway-jr/
Faulty link on crowdjustice website that should link through to this website.
The “.uk” part is not hyperlinked correctly.
You will need all the support you can get as Governments don’t listen until the numbers involved threaten their seats.
Thank you for pointing that out, I will email Crowd Justice and ask them to sort it, unfortunately I cant edit that text
Thanks Again
You are welcome. Working correctly now.
Good luck in your endeavors.
As a casual LGV driver (HGV 1 in obsolete terms) I have had to call the Police on numerous occasions when I’ve seen standing traffic in live lanes. It is an absolute fact that the camera’s don’t work on recognising stationary individual vehicles as on each occasion the Police were unaware of the incident.
What makes it worse is that others probably assume the cameras do work therefore don’t report the incidents. I do because I always assume everybody else assumed somebody else will already have reported it.
If anybody spots a vehicle stationary in a live lane, please, please dial 999 & report it. You may well save someone’s life even though you will not know it.