Birmingham headteacher unlawfully killed on M5
A headteacher was unlawfully killed after his car was hit by a businessman whose speeding van was “massively overloaded” with beer barrels, a coroner ruled today.
Daniel Slinn, 44, the head of Calshot Primary School, in Birmingham, died in a six car pile-up on the M5 near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in May last year.
The driver of the Volkswagen van, Harbinder Singh Dosanjh, 35, and his wife Manjit Kaur Dosanjh, 35, from Coventry, also died after it flipped over the central reservation and struck Mr Slinn’s Mitsubishi Colt coming in the opposite direction.
Mr Slinn, from Edgbaston, was writing a children’s book that his family said “could be the next Harry Potter” and which they have vowed to finish on his behalf.
Recording unlawful killing verdicts on both Mr Slinn and Mrs Dosanjh, Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore said: “The white van, to all intents and purposes, exploded from the southbound carriageway across the central reservation into the northbound carriageway, creating mayhem as it did so.
“The situation was made more graphic because beer kegs carried in the van had exited and were bouncing along the carriageway. It is a miracle there were no more fatalities than these three.
“Mr Dosanjh must have known he was driving a vehicle that was seriously overladen by almost 40%. He must have known that to drive a vehicle in that manner was dangerous.
“I’m satisfied that he caused the death of Mr Slinn and Mrs Dosanjh by driving dangerously.”
Mr Dosanjh’s own death was ruled as accidental, after the court heard that a bald rear tyre had blown out, causing the tragic chain of events.
