Elderly driver in wrong-way M40 smash had crashed 5 days earlier
AN elderly motorist who drove for miles the wrong way up a motorway before causing a fatal crash had been involved in another accident days earlier.
Terrified motorists were forced to swerve off the M40 as a Subaru Forester towing a caravan hurtled towards them at 70mph before hitting two other cars.
The driver and passenger in the 4x4, aged in their 80s, were killed in Monday’s crash along with the driver of a Ford Mondeo, named yesterday as former soldier Stuart Richards, 32, from Stockport.
Thames Valley Police yesterday revealed officers had been called to a report of a ‘damage only’ smash involving the Subaru in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, on Wednesday last week – five days before the M40 horror.
The force has referred itself over the incidents to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which will decide whether to investigate.
Dashcam footage taken moments before the crash on the M40 near Lewknor, Oxfordshire, shows cars swerving on to the central reservation at the last second as the Subaru headed straight at them in the fast lane.
The Subaru hit a Ford Focus and the Mondeo driven by Mr Richards.
The former soldier, who grew up in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was a health and safety officer for property developers the Emerson Group. He had previously served nine years in the Army.
Prior to that he had worked as a builder in Spain, a waiter in Norway and on the production line of a chemicals company in Northern Ireland. He had worked as an engineer and safety officer, and a team leader, in Germany, Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan before leaving the Armed Forces in 2016.
He joined construction firm Persimmon Homes, conducting inspections and accident investigations, before joining Emerson earlier this year.
Mark Cook, regional managing director of Persimmon North West, said: ‘Stuart only worked with us for a short time, but everyone in the team is shocked and saddened by this tragic news. Our thoughts are with his family.’
The Subaru is believed to have joined the motorway at Junction 7 and driven in the wrong direction for five miles until the crash near Junction 6.
Witnesses said the car had foreign number plates and showed no sign of slowing as it left a trail of chaos in its wake.
The crash caused 14 miles of tailbacks and closed the road overnight. The two occupants of the Subaru were yet to be formally identified last night.