A woman from Rotherham has set up a crowd funding page to ban smart motorways after her husband died.

Jason Mercer, 44, sadly died three months ago when he was hit by an HGV lorry after pulling over near junction 34 on the M1 northbound following a minor collision between his vehicle and another.

This section of the motorway is known as a smart motorway with all lanes running, where the previous hard shoulder has now been converted into a permanent live lane.

Claire Mercer, 44 set up the crowd funding page to raise money to ask for a judicial review of the smart motorways because her and her family want an “immediate halt to them”.

On her crowd funding page Claire said: “We found out the hard way just how dangerous all lane running smart motorways are and we want to stop anyone else going through what we have.”

Claire has raised £3,210 so far but needs £20,000 to get the judicial review.

When speaking about the safety of smart motorways Claire said: “The main problem I feel is the very, very important safety feature of the hard shoulder has been removed, there was a reason we have had hard shoulders on motorways for 50 odd years.

“I think smart motorways should be stopped immediately, I think that’s the only answer full stop.”

The government guidelines say ‘If your vehicle is damaged or appears to have problems always try to exit the motorway immediately.’

Alternatively use an emergency exit if you can reach one safely. Or if you can safely leave your vehicle contact Highways England. If you can’t get to an emergency area move over to the hard shoulder or as close as possible to the nearside verge”

Claire said her husband and another driver were in a live lane for around six minutes and were hit by a lorry before the safety features of the motorway detected them in a live lane.

If you want to donate please donate any money to this website: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/smart-motorway-jr/?fbclid=IwAR2x7bHLTeZWJh-VPmT4jtSNA8FNE0oriST3T3_VpZPpROAAEeHfH2bXgeo