No warning of car before fatal M4 crash, jury told

An eyewitness to a fatal crash between a van and a broken-down car in a smart motorway's fast lane said there was "nothing to warn anyone" about the obstruction ahead.

Pulvinder Dhillon, 68, from London, died on 7 March 2022, minutes after her daughter's Nissan Micra lost power and came to a standstill on the M4 westbound, between junctions 11 and 12, in Berkshire.

Barry O'Sullivan, 45, was driving a Ford Transit Connect van "at speed" before it hit the Micra, causing the car to burst into flames.

He denies causing death by careless driving at Reading Crown Court.

Kye Perkins told jurors he feared there would be a collision after he saw the Micra had stopped.

Perkins said the traffic at the time was "busy but flowing" and there was no warning along the M4 about the broken-down car.

He described driving past and watching the car in his side mirrors and then the collision.

Perkins said he "didn't see the van react to the car" before the crash.

"I pulled over immediately and I ran back up to the scene to where both the [vehicles] were in a bad condition," he said.

Perkins said he approached the van first, saw O'Sullivan was conscious but "wasn't great" and contacted the emergency services.

He said he had worried about "what essentially happened - that a stationary vehicle was going to get hit at 70mph in the back".

A statement from Rajpal Dene, Dhillon's daughter, was read to the court.

Dene said there had been "no warning" of any issues with her Micra before it broke down but that it was "quite frightening".

"There seemed to be nothing I could do to get the car moving again so I hit the hazard lights on straight away," she added.

She said she could not remember the crash or what happened afterwards.

Jurors previously heard that O'Sullivan, of Wixams, Bedfordshire, was allegedly driving "at speed" before the collision.

They were told on Monday the smart motorway was not functioning and was not showing messages about any obstructions.