A total of five people were killed in a head on collision on the M1 in the early hours of Sunday morning. The incident is believed to have occurred as a Polish driver turned his vehicle to head north on to the south bound carriageway just south of junction 11. Police believe that the Polish driver, who was driving a Volkswagen Passat, would have been travelling towards junction 10 where there were some road works and some road closures but that there was no reason for the vehicle to have turned round as the motorway was still open for through traffic.
Gary Sanderson from the East of England Ambulance Service alluded to the ferocity of the impact, stating on the BBC News website that “The cars were unrecognisable” and that crash victims were pronounced dead “quickly”.
In road traffic accidents the issue of who is to blame or ‘liable’ for an accident is often the main subject of debate in negotiations between the parties involved. Once a party admits liability it is usually the case that proceedings run relatively smoothly from this point onwards and that both sides are able to negotiate offers with the other party to come to an agreement without having to issue legal proceedings.
On the face of this incident the issue of blame seems to be uncontested as the driver of the Passat has clearly driven the wrong way up the motorway, although it must be stated that police are still investigating the incident. This unfortunately appears to be an extreme example of negligence by the driver which has ultimately cost the lives of not only himself, but four innocent others.
