Ossett man who killed couple in motorway smash is jailed

David and Patricia Howard from Lancaster died following the collision close to junction 31a for Fulwood, Preston, at around 9.55pm on Sunday, November 11 last year.

Jamie Michael Nichols, of Wesley Street, Ossett, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Nichols’ Audi, which was travelling northbound, collided with the couple’s Vauxhall Vectra, which hit a Volkswagen Transporter.

The Volkswagen Transporter then collided with a Citroen CX Athena. The emergency services attended and Patricia, 58, who was driving the Vectra, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

David, 57, was taken to Royal Preston Hospital, but died a short time later.

The M6 northbound was closed for more than six hours while accident investigators attended.

Harrowing statements about the impacts of David and Patricia’s deaths, penned by their family, were reading during Nichol’s sentencing hearing at Preston Crown Court.

The 23-year-old had admitted further charges of causing serious injury to another woman by dangerous driving, fraud by false representation by using a man’s bank card to obtain an insurance policy to drive the car, and two counts of causing death by driving a vehicle without a licence.

Judge Robert Altham ordered Nichols to be banned from driving for a total of 11 years. It includes an extended period of four years under section 35 of the Road Traffic Act, and he must do an extended retest before he gets his licence back.

The couple are survived by their three children, who described them as the “heart and soul of the family.”

Previously in a family tribute, they said: “Mum and Dad were two of the kindest, sweetest and most loving people anybody could have come across.

“They loved life, their friends and their family and even in the hardest of times they always stuck together.

“They were taken far too soon from this world and from us."