‘Bigger than me’: road safety campaigner whose son died in collision welcomes new UK rules
For Meera Naran, the new road safety strategy is a long-awaited milestone after years of campaigning since her eight-year-old son Dev was killed in a motorway collision in 2018.As ministers unveiled plans to cut thousands of deaths by 2035, they paid tribute to campaigners, Naran in particular, whose son is commemorated with a pledge to mandate safety technology in new vehicles as “Dev’s Law”.The 2018 crash piled tragedy on her family.Naran’s father was driving Dev to visit his older brother, Neel, who was being treated in hospital.Returning on the M6, the car halted on what would been a hard shoulder, had it not been converted for use as part of a smart motorway; a lorry ploughed into them, killing Dev.
His grandfather died a few years later, suffering from serious injuries sustained in the crash,Neel did not speak or walk for some time after receiving the news, and died in 2024,Having first campaigned for changes to smart motorways, Naran pushed for action to make all vehicles safer, using technology such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB), where alerts sound and then the brakes are applied automatically if the driver does not slow in time to avert a crash,She said: “Had the lorry involved had autonomous braking, that collision could potentially have been avoided completely and Dev could have walked out and come home to me that night,“So Dev’s Law and AEB really has come from that – my whole campaign has been looking at every element, every factor that’s been involved in Dev’s death.
That was a major factor involved and I truly think it’s a life-saving-based technology.”Different types of driver-assistance technology, including AEB, lane-keeping and other alerts, are features of most new cars but are not mandatory in Britain,Naran, 42, a senior lecturer in clinical pharmacy at Leicester’s De Montfort University, has brought her professional skills to the campaign and stressed the importance of consultation and “separating the emotion from the evidence”.Local transport minister Lilian Greenwood said the strategy was “built on evidence, but it is driven by the voices of those who have experienced the devastating consequences of road collisions first-hand”.She paid tribute to Naran for working “tirelessly in memory of her son Dev to champion life-saving technologies”.Naran said Dev had been “best friend and cheerleader” to his older brother Neel, who had complex health needs including epilepsy.
“When he found Dev was gone, he slowly gave up,”She said her focus had become “waking up every day and using that grief to make something far more important than us and see that change happen”,She added: “For this government to look at this and not only give their word that they’re going to make that change but to actually see that they have included it in the strategy is really important,“Campaigning through both their losses has been unbelievably difficult but it was bigger than my grief, it was bigger than me, it was bigger than their story,“For me it’s going to be a lifelong campaign to reduce road deaths.
I don’t want any other family to go through what we have,”
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Tesco aiming for bumper 2026 after best Christmas market share in decade
Tesco is aiming to grab an even bigger slice of the grocery market this year after winning its best share in more than a decade over Christmas with strong sales of fresh food and its Finest own-label range.The supermarket, which has an almost 29% market share, according to Worldpanel by Numerator, said it had taken the most trade from Asda, the UK’s third-largest supermarket chain that has been struggling to turn around falling sales.However, shares in Tesco dropped by more than 6% on Thursday as analysts said its third-quarter sales performance was behind expectations in all markets including the UK, Ireland, central Europe and at its Booker wholesale chain.Sales in the UK rose 3.2% in the six weeks to 3 January against hopes of 3
CMA begins full review of Kingsmill owner’s planned takeover of bread rival Hovis
The UK competition watchdog has ramped up its investigation into a £75m takeover deal that will result in the owner of Kingsmill snapping up its sliced bread rival Hovis.Associated British Foods (ABF), which also owns the Primark clothing chain, confirmed plans to buy Hovis from its private equity owners Endless in August, combining the UK’s second and third largest bread brands.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has now launched an in-depth investigation into whether the deal could harm consumers, potentially leading to reduced choice and higher prices on grocery shelves. It follows a request by the two companies to fast-track the review of the merger.ABF said in a statement: “Our priority is to achieve regulatory clearance as efficiently as possible and we are pleased to have agreed with the CMA that we will fast-track to the in-depth and detailed final phase of their merger review
Greggs puts up price of sausage roll by 5p to £1.35 amid rising costs
Greggs has added 5p to the price of a sausage roll and 10p to a latte coffee as it leans on some of its bestsellers to soak up rising wage, energy and packaging costs.The UK’s largest bakery chain said it had no plans for further price increases at present and it expected inflation to ease this year as it admitted it had sold fewer items in the run-up to Christmas amid a “very tough, challenging market”.The “targeted” rises mean a sausage roll now costs £1.35 in most shops, up from £1.30 a year ago, while a latte will now cost £2
Trump plans to use Venezuela’s huge crude reserves ‘to cut US oil price to $50 a barrel’
Donald Trump plans to use Venezuela’s vast crude reserves to establish control of most of the western hemisphere’s oil in an attempt to drive the market price down to about $50 (£37) a barrel, according to reports.The US president has repeatedly raised the prospect of producing enough crude from Venezuela’s oilfields to drive down the US oil price from more than $56 a barrel today to about $50 in an effort to cut energy costs for consumers, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited senior Trump administration officials.Global oil markets have already recorded significant losses in recent years due to an oversupply of crude. Prices slumped by almost 20% in 2025, marking the biggest annual loss since the Covid-19 pandemic and the first time the oil market has recorded three consecutive years of annual losses.As well as driving market prices lower, officials reportedly claimed Trump’s plans to control Venezuela’s oil reserves, which are the largest in the world, include cutting Russia and China’s access to the South American country in order to establish a western hemisphere oil production stronghold
Tunbridge Wells residents without water again as supplier blames cold weather
Residents of Tunbridge Wells have been left without water again, just a month after a major outage.South East Water said 6,500 households have no water at all, while thousands more have “intermittent supplies”.It blamed the cold weather for the disruption, which caused a “series of burst water mains”. The company had previously been found to be spending more paying dividends and servicing its debt pile over two years than investing in infrastructure.On Thursday night, South East Water said: “Reservoir levels have fallen this evening to the point where our boosters, which push water to the higher ground, are unable to operate
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