M61 crash: Man and woman arrested after motorway smash which killed 12-year-old girl

The crash happened on the M61
Google
Jacob Jarvis7 July 2019
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A man and a woman have been arrested in connection to a motorway smash which killed a 12-year-old girl.

Sana Patel, who was from Blackburn, died at the scene of the incident, which happened at around 10.45pm on Saturday.

She was a passenger in a Nissan Qashqai which was involved in a collision with a Vauxhall Corsa, around a mile from junction eight for Chorley.

The occupants of the Vauxhall Corsa fled the scene on foot, Lancashire Police said.

A police statement said: "A short time ago we arrested a 23-year-old woman from Mirefield in Yorkshire on suspicion of death by dangerous driving. She remains in custody."

A later update said a 28-year-old man from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene.

The force said five other people in the Qashqai suffered minor injuries from the crash.

Detective Superintendent Andy Cribbin said: "This was a tragic incident in which 12-year-old Sana Patel lost her life and our thoughts are very much with her family and friends at his unimaginably difficult time.

"There are no words to describe what they will be going through and we send them our deepest condolences.

"We have now made one arrest but are very much still trying to establish what happened."

DS Cribbin appealed for more witnesses to come forward and urged any other occupants of the Corsa to get in touch with police.

The M61 was closed in both directions between junctions six and eight while collision investigators attended the scene.

It reopened on Sunday at around 9am.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in