Police driver charged over ‘80mph’ 999 crash horror in Walkden
Pc Warren Lewin, 30, was at the wheel of a liveried police patrol car when it smashed into a Mercedes Vito minibus while answering a 999 call
A police officer has been summonsed for dangerous driving over an alleged 80mph smash which injured two colleagues and a taxi driver.
Pc Warren Lewin, 30, was at the wheel of a liveried police patrol car when it smashed into a Mercedes Vito minibus while answering a 999 call.
The police car was responding to a 999 call and is alleged to have been travelling at 87mph in a 30mph-limit zone moments before the crash.
Two police colleagues who were passengers in the Ford Focus were injured during the smash at 3am in Walkden, Salford, on New Year’s Day.
Pc Lewin, from Trafford and based at Swinton police station, suffered whiplash while his front seat passenger suffered whiplash, a broken hand and bruising. Their rear seat colleague, who was thrown through the front windscreen during the impact, suffered a fractured vertebrae, a bleed on the brain and whiplash. Firefighters used cutting gear to free two of the officers from the wreckage of their patrol car.
The £32,000 Mercedes minibus was written off while its driver, Steve Broadbent, 50, escaped with bruising. The dad-of-one, a private hire driver from Swinton who had just finished a nightshift, managed to crawl from the wreckage. His nearly-new Mercedes was shunted into a parked car and then into a railing following the collision at the junction of Rothwell Street.
Pc Lewin has been summonsed on two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The charges are in connection with the injuries suffered by his two police colleagues in the patrol car. He is due to re-appear at Preston Crown Court on November 5 for a plea and case management hearing.
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