An 87-year-old motorist was killed in a head-on motorway crash two months after police failed to notice his driving licence had been revoked because of dementia, an inquest has heard.
Albert Newman and a passenger in a van died after the “confused” motorist drove the wrong way for up to 30 miles along the M42, A42 and M1 in the early hours of 12 October last year.
An inquest heard Newman had been reported to Nottinghamshire police in August 2015 by a bank worker who spotted him driving his Mazda despite “severe” signs of dementia.
The hearing in Loughborough, Leicestershire, was told a police officer who visited the pensioner’s Nottingham home assessed his welfare, but did not check a printout showing he had no valid licence or MOT.
Newman and 27-year-old Michael Luciw, also from Nottingham, died at the scene after the Mazda crashed into a Ford Transit van in the outside lane of the southbound M1 near Lockington, Leicestershire.
The north-west Leicestershire coroner was told overhead signs warning that a car was driving the wrong way were activated near Birmingham because of an error by Warwickshire police.
Although a motorist had called police at 2.01am to report that Newman’s car was driving north on the southbound M42, the information was “incorrectly logged” and passed to Highways England as an incident involving a southbound vehicle.
Pamela Oxlade, a witness who was travelling towards Birmingham airport with her husband, told the inquest: “We were fortunately just past a lorry when suddenly, out of nowhere, there were two balls of light. It was really quick and it was just unreal because you couldn’t see the outline of the car in the dark.
“I dialled 999 and spoke to a gentleman, explained what had happened and he just said they were aware of it. We said we were almost half an hour from the M1 and going towards Birmingham. It was such a great relief to hear that he was aware of it.”
The inquest was told that approximately 20 minutes after the near-miss, Oxlade spotted motorway signs near Birmingham warning motorists to slow down because of a car travelling in the wrong direction.
Before the crash Newman’s car was recorded as being in Nottingham at 11.19pm and he is thought to have joined the M42 via an exit slip road at junction 9 in north Warwickshire.
Details of prior contact between Nottinghamshire police and Newman, whose licence was revoked in December 2013, were given to the inquest by DS Jackie Alexander, of the force’s professional standards department.
She told the hearing Newman was reported to police by a member of staff at a bank in Sneinton Dale, Nottingham, who expressed concern that he was driving on the afternoon of 12 August last year.
The call was initially graded as an immediate priority but was later downgraded to “urgent” and an officer was asked to attend Newman’s address.
Alexander told the inquest: “The beginning of the message was clear that this was about his driving. The officer did not note that part of the message and focussed on the welfare part of the message. He came to the conclusion that everything was OK in respect of this gentleman and signed the message off accordingly.”
During her evidence, Alexander agreed with the coroner, Trevor Kirkman, that the visit had been an opportunity to recognise that Newman’s licence had been revoked, that he had been driving and should not have been.
Kirkman asked the senior officer: “The most basic of steps to verify that Mr Newman had authority to drive – ie, a current licence – were not taken?”
Alexander replied: “That’s correct sir.”
Earlier in the hearing, the driver of the Transit van, Andrew Harrington, who was travelling from Ilkeston in Derbyshire to Carlisle with Luciw, told how they joined the M1 minutes before the crash.
Harrington, who suffered a broken pelvis, told the hearing: “We were just getting up to 70mph and the next minute I saw a set of headlights. I swerved slightly and the next minute it was all over – we were up in the air and landed on the crash barrier.”
The inquest was adjourned until 8 December after the coroner requested further information to be provided by Nottinghamshire police and Highways England.
Police failed to notice revoked driving licence before fatal collision
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