Georgina and Tom Daniels, who only got married in June last year, were travelling in the Citroen C4 Picasso which collided with a Seat Leon in Bolton, Greater Manchester, this month
A newlywed couple travelling in the taxi which collided with a Seat Leon in a horror crash — that left four people dead — have spoken of their lucky escape.
Georgina and Tom Daniels say they “can’t fathom how [they’re] still alive following the smash, which happened on a street in Bolton, Greater Manchester, in the early hours of Sunday January 11. They — and another couple with whom they were “best friends” — had booked a taxi for the short journey home, but it and the Seat Leon, in which four young men were travelling, collided.
The driver of their taxi — 54-year-old Masrob Ali — and 18-year-old mechanic Mohammed Jibrael Mukhtar, Farhan Patel, also 18, and Mohammed Danyaal, aged 19, who were all in the Seat, died of their injuries. Mr and Mrs Daniels pulled through, although they now have life-changing injuries.
Speaking from her hospital bed, Mrs Daniels, 28, said: “I can’t fathom how we’re all still alive — it should have taken our lives. I have no idea how we’re all still here after seeing what happened to everyone and the state we are all in.”
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The couple and their two friends were cut free from the unrecognisable wreck of the Citroen, along with one survivor from the Seat. The head-on crash happened on a stretch of road where several other serious accidents had happened last year, it is said.
Mr and Mrs Daniels now face having to rebuild their shattered lives separately. Mrs Daniels, who only married her 29-year-old salesman husband in June last year, continued: “All of the recovery, rebuilding, the things we will have to get over. And we will have to do it apart. It’s cruel. There are no words to describe it.”
Mrs Daniels, an NHS manager, has also issued a warning to a selfish minority who drive for “attention and status”. She referred to footage, which since emerged of a vehicle travelling 122mph in the same area just one night before the crash.
A passenger filmed the driver swerving to avoid slower-moving traffic in the shocking footage. Greater Manchester Police are said to be using the video as part of their investigation.
Speaking about the Saturday night out together in Bolton, Mrs Daniels said it had been a “send-off” for friends setting off on an adventure to Australia. The NHS worker added: “It should have been such an exciting part of their lives — for the night to end that way it did, it’s shocking to say the least. It’s one extreme to the other. The biggest shock of all is that we are all still here. It was just devastation.”
To help fund their needs while they are unable to go back to work, a close friend has set up an online GoFundMe appeal — benefiting Mr and Mrs Daniels and their friends, who so far do not want to be named. To donate to the appeal, visit this link.
