Witnesses: Wrong way crash driver did U-turn

U-TURN: Tauya Marengereke

• £1,3m UK bank fraud Zimbabweans jailed

• Zimbabwean killed after he drives wrong way on UK motorway

• Sheffield insurance crooks to repay £10,000

• Zim prison nurse jailed in UK passport fraud

• Ex-Zim cop run over by bus in Nottingham

• 'Mugabe's ex-pilot' jailed over UK idetinty fraud

• Girl, 4, killed by falling TV

• Conman who blew £50,000 on designer suits jailed

Posted to the web: 30/05/2009 16:39:21
THE three men killed in a smash by a Zimbabwean driving the wrong way on a British motorway have been named as Romanians -- Vasile Calin, Vasile Florin Bura and Florin Paska.

Tauya Marengereke’s family held a church service still searching for answers on Saturday as police confirmed several witnesses had come forward to say they saw him make a U-turn on the southbound carriageway of the M6 before heading into on-coming traffic early Sunday.

As police raced to intercept him, Marengereke’s hired Ford Fusion ploughed into a Peugeot 406, killing Calin, 27, Bura, 27, and Paska, 18. A third man in the Peugeot is in hospital.

Black Country coroner Robin Balmain heard on Friday that 27-year-old Tauya Marengereke stopped for 30 minutes on the hard shoulder of the M6 near Junction 8 just after 5.30am.

In a bizarre manoeuvre, the Zimbabwean then made a U-turn as stunned motorists frantically rang emergency services. Despite their best efforts, police were too late to avert the smash timed at 5.55am.

Balmain said Marengereke, a single man who was identified by his sister, lived in the Peacehaven area of Brighton but was am aerospace engineering student at the University of Liverpool. He sat his final exam two days before the deadly crash.

A post mortem showed that Marengereke, who had been driving in the UK for four years, died of a haemorrhage and head injuries.

Calin, who lived in Brent, London, died of a massive haemothorax and a haemorrhage due to a traumatic rupture of his spleen.

Peugeot driver Bura, of the same address, died of multiple traumatic injuries cause by the crash, Balmain said.

Paska, of Wembley, London, died of hypobulimic shock due to multiple injuries.
PC Mark Simpson of the Central Motorway Police Group, said several witnesses saw Marengereke doing a U-turn.

“We haven’t got the collision on camera but we can see him going the wrong way,” he said, adding that inquiries were continuing.

Balmain said toxicology tests had been arranged, and adjourned the inquest. He said the four bodies could be released for funerals and could be repatriated.

On Saturday, Marengereke’s family held a church service in Brighton. Burial arrangements have not yet been announced.

Meanwhile, Marengereke’s friends have set up a Facebook Group in his memory. The group already has over 420 members.
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com