Tragic Tividale driver 'sped up' as lorry passed
A car enthusiast killed in a crash on the M40 had accelerated as he was being overtaken by an HGV, a jury heard.
Alex Butwell, from Tividale, was killed when he was hit by a BMW moments after he crawled free from the wreckage of his car that had been struck by the lorry.
Prosecution accident investigator Pc Colin Humphreys agreed that if 25-year-old Mr Butwell had not sped up, the artic would have been safely past him when it pulled in.
As it was, the cab of George Carr's artic struck his VW Polo, sending it spinning in front of the lorry which then shunted it along before it was thrown towards the central Arnco barrier.
After he and his two passengers got out of the car, which had come to rest sticking out into the fast lane, Mr Butwell, was hit by a BMW driven by Donald Corrigan.
Carr, aged 63, of The Hurn, in Digby, Lincolnshire, has denied causing Mr Butwell's death by dangerous driving, and Corrigan, 67, of Butt Lane, Allesley, Coventry, has pleaded not guilty to doing so by driving without due care and attention.
The jury at Warwick Crown Court on Thursday heard that on the M40 in south Warwickshire, Carr, driving a Mann artic in which he was making a delivery to Banbury, had been overtaking a convoy of car enthusiasts on their way to a show at Santa Pod Raceway.
It is alleged he caused the tragic chain of events by pulling back in before he had passed Mr Butwell's white VW Polo which was at the head of the 11-vehicle convoy.
As Pc Humphreys was giving evidence, he said he and defence expert Peter Jennings had agreed a number of points which were then read to the jury by prosecutor Stefan Kolodynski.
The accident reconstruction experts agreed that Carr's lorry 'was travelling at a constant speed of 56mph in the seconds before colliding with Mr Butwell's car'.
Their agreed statement continued: "The video evidence shows that the convoy of cars was generally travelling at about 46mph, but there was some minor variation between the cars.
"The dashcam record from the lorry illustrates that that, as it disappeared from the view of the camera, the VW Polo was travelling faster than the cars behind it.
"This must mean Mr Butwell started to accelerate before the front of the lorry drew level with him, and that the lorry would not have fully passed the Polo at any time before the collision.
"After Mr Butwell's car had initially struck the central reserve fencing, it came to a stop close to, and facing, that fencing. Its rear was blocking a substantial portion of the outer lane of the southbound carriageway."
The trial continues.
