Car involved in M4 head-on collision was travelling in wrong direction

The cars driven by Cyril Titcombe, aged 82, and Tony Gwillym, aged 48, both from Swindon, collided on the eastbound carriageway about a mile west of the Welford works unit slip road between junction 13 (Chieveley) and junction 14 (Hungerford) on July 7 at 10.34pm.
Mr Titcombe was pronounced dead at the scene, while Mr Gwillym, who was not wearing his seatbelt, died at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, the following day.
Mr Titcombe’s widow, Sheila Titcombe, who was a passenger in her husband’s Mazda, survived the incident but was left with a number of injuries, including a broken arm and bruising.
Mr and Mrs Titcombe were travelling to their home in Swindon from Bristol Airport following a holiday in Ibiza
A statement made by Mrs Titcombe was read at her husband and Mr Gwillym’s joint inquest at Newbury Town Hall yesterday (Wednesday).
“I realised we were going past our junction to get off the motorway,” Mrs Titcombe said. “I said to Cyril ‘where are you going?’. I said ‘you will have to find a place to turn around’.
Mrs Titcombe then recalls her husband turning off a slip road.
“The next thing I remember was a really loud bang,” Mrs Titcombe said. “I realised we had been hit by a car. I said to Cyril ‘what have you done?’.
“I think I was knocked out then. I heard a noise like cutting, maybe it was me being cut out of the car.”
HGV driver Steven Daly saw Mr Titcombe perform the u-turn on the Welford works unit slip road.
He told yesterday’s inquest: “I actually stopped in the first lane. I’m thinking to myself ‘what do I do now?’. Before I could make my mind up the car actually did a u-turn.”
Mr Titcombe’s car was then seen by Benjamin Smith, who was driving in the middle lane of the eastbound carriageway.
“My wife actually saw a car coming towards us in the fast lane,” he said. “As she acknowledged it, I saw it.
“It must have been about four or five seconds before it passed me.”
Russell Thirkettle, who was also travelling on the eastbound carriageway, described the collision, which occurred seconds after Mr Gwillym’s Volkswagen had overtaken his vehicle.
Mr Thirkettle said: “The car unloaded violently. Then the impact. There was an explosive collision. It was deafening. There was a massive cascade of sparks.”
Mr Thirkettle said Mr Gwillym’s vehicle then careered towards him.
“It flew. It left the ground,” he said. “I managed to get on the brakes at the moment it landed in front of me. I just managed to miss it by a fraction.”
Forensic road traffic collision investigator for Hampshire Constabulary and Thames Valley Police, Tony Reading, said Mr Titcombe’s car had travelled about a mile and a half westward along the eastbound carriageway before the accident.
He estimated that Mr Titcombe’s car was travelling about 40mph, while Mr Gwillym’s vehicle was travelling between 70 and 80mph at the time of impact.
“It’s the nightmare scenario when a vehicle is travelling the wrong way on a motorway,” Mr Reading added.
Berkshire coroner Michael Burgess recorded a verdict of accidental death for both Mr Titcombe and Mr Gwillym.