Two friends from Cheslyn Hay were killed when a motorway collision sent a transporter carrying Army tanks crashing through the central barrier and into oncoming traffic, an inquest heard.

Experts told an inquest in Leicester yesterday there was “very little” Paul Evans and Craig Mears could have done to avoid the crash.

The pair were travelling on the M1 in Leicestershire when a tractor unit and car collided on the northbound carriageway between Junctions 19 and 20, forcing the transporter to career across the central reservation.

The three eight-tonne armoured Army vehicles on its trailer were thrown onto the carriageway.

One landed on the Mercedes Sprinter van carrying 37-year-old Mr Evans, from Coltsfoot View and who was club captain at Willenhall Rugby Club, and 33-year-old father-of-two Mr Mears, from Mitre Road.

The pair were both decorators for IH Maintenance Repair Ltd in Great Wyrley and were on their way to a job in Weston Favell, near Northampton.

Also killed were 21-year-old Daniel Bradley from Leicestershire, Wayne Buckley, aged 44, from West Yorkshire, and Chris Green, 29, from Nottinghamshire.

The inquest started yesterday at Leicester Cor-oner’s Court, over the accident on June 11 2003.