THE Lancashire Telegraph’s Turn The Lights On campaign was launched in the wake of the death of Mark Burgess.

Not because the lighting would have saved Mr Burgess’ life, cut short when he crashed into the central reservation on the M65.

But because eye-witnesses said, immediately afterwards, they were involved in subsequent crashes as they couldn’t see debris in the road until it was too late.

Yesterday, the campaign was given a ringing endorsement by East Lancashire coroner Michael Singleton who decided he had to take action.

Mr Singleton will write to the Highways Agency ‘inviting them to reconsider the situation with regards to the lighting’ on the M65 stretch where it happened.

He was moved to take action because he said, if nothing is done, there may be ‘fatalities in the future’.

That’s a extremely strong message to road bosses who turned off the lights between junctions seven and 10 in 2011 to reduce carbon emissions.

Experts believed the rate of casualties would increase by 0.06 annually post switch-off.

But with inept cats’ eyes and an inadequate central barrier, the reality could be much, much worse unless something is done quickly.