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Call for Mway safety barrier

by Kate Weir
1/10/2008

A CORONER has called for safety improvements to the M60 at Denton after an 18-year-old man died when his car hit a lamppost.

Carpenter Gareth Adshead, of Fir Tree Lane Dukinfield was driving his Renault Clio on the southbound carriageway of the M60 on 21 December last year when he crashed just after Junction 24.

Coroner John Pollard heard from witnesses that Gareth’s car was seen travelling in the outside lane at around 6pm as it overtook a Citroen C5.

The Citroen’s driver, Matthew Laker, told the court that he saw Gareth’s car veer to the left.

The car slid across the road, facing the wrong way, before careering up the nearside verge, coming to a stop when it hit a lamppost. Gareth died instantly of multiple injuries.

PC David Poole told the inquest there was no evidence of excessive speed and that most likely cause of the accident was oversteering. He said that once the wheels had locked there was little any driver could do.

Mr Pollard said he was surprised at the lack of safety barriers. He said: "If there had been an Armco barrier I can’t say if he would have survived this accident."

Had the barriers been in place the impact could have been spread across the car, perhaps saving Gareth’s life, he said.

Speaking after the inquest, Gareth’s father, Craig, said his ‘sports mad’ son had many friends and that more than 500 people attended his funeral earlier this year.

Gareth’s mother, Carol, praised the coroner for raising the safety barrier issue.

"When we visited the crash site to look at the flowers, I looked down and I thought ‘where’s all the barriers?"

Verdict: accidental death