The mancityfans.net football forum

Manchester City fan critical after M61 crash on way to Blackburn Rovers game

1:12pm Monday 17th August 2009

comment Comments (0) Have your say »


A football fan is in a critical condition and two others are in hospital after a serious road smash brought traffic to a halt on the M61 near Chorley.

A Ford Focus estate careered out of control on the northbound carriageway, two miles from Bolton West Services, at around 10.30am on Saturday, police said.

The car rolled over several times on the embankment before coming to a rest in lane one of the motorway.

The three Manchester City fans were travelling to their team’s game against Blackburn Rovers, at Ewood Park, Blackburn.

Two passengers, both men, aged 32, were thrown from the car as it turned over.

The driver got out of the vehicle after it stopped moving and was said to be walking around “dazed”.

Firefighters from Horwich were first on the scene and found the driver and his two passengers close to the car.

Crew commander Craig Lunt said: “Members of the public stopped to help and managed to help calm one casualty who was suffering from a head injury. They did a good job. A doctor who was passing also stopped to provide assistance.”

One of the passengers, who was last night still in a critical condition, was airlifted to the Royal Preston Hospital and the other two men were also later taken to the same hospital by ambulance.

The incident caused severe traffic delays in both directions.

Police closed the northbound carriageway and later closed southbound lanes for a short time to allow the North West air ambulance to land. Northbound lanes were reopened at around 1pm.

One driver said: “There were about half a dozen police cars and several ambulances. It looked like a very bad accident.

“We were stuck for around two hours.”

An investigation is now underway into the cause of the accident and police are appealing for witnesses.

Anyone with information should call Lancashire Police on 08451 25 35 45.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Hope they get well.

Seatbelts would've been usefull again though.

ant london wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Hope they get well.

Seatbelts would've been usefull again though.

Sometimes not actually....my old man was involved in a really bad smash when I was a kid (similar sounding to this, high speed, car rolled down an embankment). His friend was wearing his belt and was crushed to death inside the car....my dad wasn't and was thrown out as the car tumbled....he survived. Sounds like the two thrown clear in this case may have been fortunate

In any event, hope everyone recovers

lets all have a disco wrote:

ant london wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Hope they get well.

Seatbelts would've been usefull again though.

Sometimes not actually....my old man was involved in a really bad smash when I was a kid (similar sounding to this, high speed, car rolled down an embankment). His friend was wearing his belt and was crushed to death inside the car....my dad wasn't and was thrown out as the car tumbled....he survived. Sounds like the two thrown clear in this case may have been fortunate

In any event, hope everyone recovers

That happened to my cousins,the police actually said if they were wearing their seatbelts their legs would have been crushed and amputated but because they werent wearing belts their reactions moved their body and legs into a safer position.