Pile-up on M25 sets off probe
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by Karen Miles • Police are investigating the role of a number of lorries in an M25 pile-up which killed one lorry driver when he was thrown out of his cab and over the side of a bridge.
Essex police confirmed this week that careless driving charges could be brought against any of the 32 drivers involved.
Frederick Bennett, 45, from Gillingham in Kent died when he drove into the back of vehicles which had stopped because of a crash involving six or seven lorries. He was catapulted from his cab and thrown 5Oft over the side of a bridge on to the A127, which crosses the M25 at Junction 29 near Cpminsten The crash occurred when vehicles drove into a sheet of rain which produced two-metre-high spray from lorry wheels.
One lorry drove into an embankment and five or six others then collided. Bennett drove into the back of a queue of cars and trucks. Two other lorries continued with him.
Those with damaged trucks include: an ownerdriver from Spondon, Derbyshire; Cammacks from Wakes Coline, Essex; Kings Transport from Chelmsford, Essex; an owner-driver from East Tilbury, Essex; SRT from Stowmarket, Suffolk; Via Gellia Transport from Mat lock, Derbyshire; Paragon Piping Services from Hull; and a German company, Wilhelm Grote Transport, from Dormagen.
Bennett's ERF artic was damaged. He was working for Aylesford, Kent-based David Payne & Son. Sergeant Paul Moor says: "We will be looking at the role of all 32 vehicles and establishing their role in the accident."