Car accident news
06/06/2008

Fatal car accident in Birmingham described as 'worst'

A senior Birmingham policeman has described a recent car accident, involving a heavy van hitting a family car head-on, as "certainly the worst incident I have had to deal with."

The car crash occurred last Friday on the M5, as the Birmingham family was returning from a holiday in Cornwall. The van, heavily laden with beer barrels, crashed through a dividing barrier before hitting the family car, causing a nine-car smash that left fifteen people with personal injury, three people dead and the van almost destroyed.

One of those with fatal injuries was the father in the first car struck by the van. His daughter, 11, was airlifted to hospital with serious injury, and her mother followed with a leg wound. The daughter has only just been told that her father died in the car accident.

The police officer in charge of the investigation said, "I have been to hundreds of accidents and dozens of fatal ones, but this scene was something else.

"The van had almost disintegrated and the beer barrels acted like missiles."

Police are now scrutinising CCTV to better understand the situation that led to the car accident.