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 ‘Gentle giant’ Wayne Jackson died in a collision in Northwich after his car veered into the path of oncoming traffic for some unknown reason. An inquest in Warrington heard that Wayne, 44, had died in a crash on the A556 in Tabley, near Northwich, on his way home from his job as a driver at Manchester Airport at around 3.30pm on March 4 last year. 

Mr Jackson’s wife Joanne, a nursery nurse, told the inquest that she last saw her husband on the morning of March 4, when he had gone downstairs to get ready to go to work and had told her to stay in bed for a bit longer.

She said: “He went downstairs and got his uniform and said ‘I won’t come back up as I don’t want to disturb you’ because I was in work in a few hours.” She added: “He said ‘I love you’ and I said ‘I love you’.”

According to Cheshire Live, she said that her husband hadn’t felt unwell that day and he had set off to work in his mum’s Corsa. His own vehicle had been written off and he was unable to get a new one due to the Covid-19 lockdown. He was familiar with this vehicle and had driven it a number of times.

Senior coroner for Cheshire Alan Moore heard that Mr Jackson, who lived on Green Lane, Northwich, had been driving the Vauxhall Corsa along the road when he had, for some unknown reason, gone over to the wrong side of the road and into the path of oncoming traffic, before then steering the vehicle back into the correct lane.

His vehicle then collided with another vehicle, a Mercedes, and he sustained multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Mercedes driver, Steven Williams told the inquest that he had been driving his vehicle in the Manchester-bound lane of the A556 Chester Road in Tabley when this collision occurred.

He said he had seen Mr Jackson’s Corsa coming towards him after veering over from his Northwich-bound side of the carriageway and so he had taken evasive action by driving over to the opposite carriageway. He’d made this decision since there was traffic on his nearside and no traffic on the opposite side of the road at that time. But Mr Jackson managed to steer the black Corsa back to his lane and into the path of Mr Williams, and so a collision occurred.

Mr Williams said: “I saw the Corsa in my lane coming towards me. Before I knew it, the distance between our two cars was changing so quickly. I did cross the central white line to try to avoid the Corsa. I had nowhere else to go.”

Emergency services staff were called out by another driver, Oliver Casson, who had been behind the silver Mercedes in the second lane of the Manchester-bound side of the road, but Mr Jackson died at the scene. Mr Williams was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Mr Jackson and his wife have three children – Ellie, Nicole and Lucas – and many tributes were paid to him at the time of his death, with his wife Joanne describing him as a “loving husband and daddy”. She said he was “lovingly known as ‘gentle giant’, ‘Big guy’, ‘Chewy’ and to his wife and kids ‘our GORILLA’.

Joanne added: “We, as a family, are devastated that we have lost our whole world. We are heartbroken at being robbed of the most amazing man so soon. We love you more than words can say.”

Forensic collision investigator PC Mike Tompson from Cheshire Police told the inquest that he had conducted a thorough investigation, including examining dashcam footage from a Ford CMAX driven by Chad Tomlinson, which was close to the junction with Flittogate Lane. This footage appeared to show that Mr Jackson’s vehicle had gone over into the lane two on the wrong side of the road. He said: “The collision happened on lane two of the M6 bound lane. Why, I don’t know. It appears that the driver then steered back.”

There were two differing accounts of the events leading up to the collision from Mr Williams and another witness Oliver Casson but, on examining all of the evidence, PC Tompson believed that Mr Jackson had veered on to the wrong side of the road for some unknown reason before returning to his lane and then his vehicle collided with the Mercedes driven by Mr Williams, who had taken evasive action to try to avoid a collision.

Mr Casson’s car was behind Mr Williams’s car at the time but it was said to be lower than Mr Williams’s car – a type of people carrier – thereby potentially obscuring his vision of the incident. Visibility and weather conditions were said to be good at the time of the collision.

Mr Jackson’s GP Dr Edward Shaw, who works at Watling Street Medical Practice in Northwich, said in a written statement read out at the inquest that his patient had some minor ailments but nothing which could possibly have had any bearing on his death.

Home Office pathologist Dr Matthew Cieka said that Mr Jackson had sustained multiple injuries which were not survivable. He said there was no evidence of any consumption of alcohol, drugs or medication, explaining that a very low level of alcohol found in blood and urine samples would have been produced naturally in the body following death. Toxicologist Jefir Sharif also concluded that there was no evidence of any drug or alcohol consumption.

The coroner concluded that the cause of death was multiple injuries due to a road traffic collision. He offered his condolences to Mr Jackson’s family, describing Mr Jackson’s wife Joanne as being very brave in giving evidence at the inquest hearing. Mr Moore said: “Mr Jackson sustained multiple injuries due to a collision. Those injuries were unsurvivable and they caused his death at the scene.”

He added that he was satisfied that Mr Jackson was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol, saying that both vehicles involved in the collision had also been examined and found to be roadworthy.

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