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Final moments of A5 stolen car death crash recalled

A police officer has described the dramatic final moments of a high speed chase that led to the death of a Wolverhampton man driving a stolen car.

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Stefan Boswell was killed in the accident on the A5 in Shrewsbury following a police pursuit on June 6 last year.

The accident happened during the early hours of the morning after Mr Boswell picked up his nephew Jamie Jones in a red Vauxhall Corsa stolen from the driveway of a home in Craven Arms in south Shropshire earlier that night.

Jones survived but suffered serious injuries and is currently serving a year in jail for aggravated vehicle taking.

The crash led to lengthy queues on the A5

The pursuit ended when Mr Boswell was killed after losing control of the car going the wrong way around the Emstrey Island at Shrewsbury, mounting the embankment and crashing.

The first day of the jury inquest on Mr Boswell took place at Greenhous Meadow yesterday, where Pc Mark Gallacher – the officer driving the police vehicle that was involved in the pursuit of Mr Boswell – gave evidence.

The jury heard that the police officer had gone against pursuit procedure by also driving in the wrong lane to pursue Mr Boswell.

He said he had seen what he believed was the stolen vehicle coming towards him between Dorrington and Bayston Hill, so he turned around and followed the vehicle.

When the vehicle did not stop, a police pursuit was authorised.

This saw Pc Gallacher pursue the vehicle that Mr Boswell was driving and follow him from the Dobbies island to the Emstrey island – driving the wrong way up the dual carriageway.

Mr John Ellery, senior coroner for Shropshire, said when approaching the Emstrey island 20-year-old Mr Boswell, from Wolverhampton, lost control and crashed.

Mr Boswell sustained fatal injuries and was declared dead at the scene, the coroner said. But his 20-year-old nephew Jones, living at Manor Road, Walsall, at the time survived.

Professor Archie Malcolm, a consultant pathologist who carried out Mr Boswell's post mortem, said the medical cause of his death was multiple injuries due to the collision.

The inquest was told that at the time of Mr Boswell's death the results of a toxicology report found that there was no alcohol or therapeutic or recreational drugs in his system.

Giving evidence, Pc Gallacher said he was trained to could carry out police pursuits. Defending his decision to pursue Mr Boswell by driving on the wrong side of the dual carriageway, Pc Gallacher said: "I felt it was completely the right thing to do in the circumstances.

"I felt like I had to protect members of the public travelling on that road.

"I had a second or two to make a decision and it was my absolute belief that these were exceptional circumstances."

He told the jury that the vehicle Mr Boswell was in crashed once the pursuit had been abandoned.

"I watched the vehicle go through the roundabout and then there was an enormous cloud of smoke and sparks. I don't recall where it went but it was no longer there," he said.

He said when he got to the roundabout he saw two other officers who were blocking off the road to traffic and then recalls seeing the vehicle 'pointing face down'. "It was like it was standing up, there was no driver but there was a passenger there."

Questions were also raised at the inquest over the fact that the police control room was unaware that Pc Gallacher was driving on the wrong side of the road at the time.

Also questioned was whether he stopped his vehicle when he was told by Inspector Lucy Sewell to abandon the pursuit.

Pc Gallacher insisted he did abandon the pursuit but for his own safety wanted to make sure that he was off the dual carriageway.

Jones gave evidence at the inquest and described being 'more like brothers' with Mr Boswell. Jones was able to attend the afternoon of the hearing despite receiving medical treatment that morning.

He said that he had little recollection of exactly what happened on the night of the accident.

Jones, who was living in Craven Arms at the time, said that Mr Boswell came to Craven Arms by train on the night of the pursuit.

He said: "We left Craven Arms at about 1am. We were going to go to Wolverhampton."

Jones said Mr Boswell had taken the car and was the driver, while he was the front seat passenger.

He said: "We went to get petrol from Church Stretton and that's the last thing I remember from Craven Arms.

"All I remember is waking up in hospital.

"And I remember going round the roundabout but that's it."

The inquest continues.

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