Moment family in taxi is hit on their way home from airport by reckless driver who careers round corner on wrong side of the road
A video captured a reckless driver speeding down the wrong side of the road before colliding with a taxi carrying a family home from the airport in Benfleet, Essex. The crash, which happened in the early hours of Friday morning, left the taxi thrown onto the pavement and the offending car severely damaged, with police confirming several people were injured and treated at the scene. Essex Police has launched an investigation and is appealing for witnesses or footage.
The three-vehicle collision took place on Hart Road just before 1.30am, with the family understood to have been travelling home from Southend Airport. Footage shows the wrong-way car hurtling into the taxi before its driver got out to inspect the wreckage, blood visible on his arm. The incident is one of several recent wrong-way driving crashes reported, including a fatal collision on the A66 near Middlesbrough that killed five joyriders and two police officers, and a crash on the M9 in Co. Kildare, Ireland, in which five teenagers died.
- Wrong-way driver crashes into taxi carrying family from Southend Airport
- Several people injured; Essex Police investigating and seeking witnesses
- Follows other recent fatal wrong-way crashes in the UK and Ireland
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Reckless driving is the common thread here. The Benfleet incident is being reported alongside separate fatal crashes on the A66 in England and the M9 in Ireland, both involving vehicles travelling the wrong way, as examples of a wider pattern rather than a connected series of events.
Essex Police, the force covering the county where Benfleet is located, is leading the investigation into the taxi crash and is asking anyone with information or dashcam footage to come forward. Southend Airport, mentioned as the family's point of arrival, is a regional airport in the south-east of England.
No arrests or charges have been confirmed at this stage, and the identities of those involved, including the taxi passengers and the other driver, have not been made public.