A heartbroken mother has said it would be ‘impossible’ to achieve justice after her ‘gorgeous, j88betting.red caring’ little girl was killed by a man who deliberately swerved into oncoming traffic on the motorway.
Faye Dawson, from Wallasey, died after driver Terence Unsworth, 79, made an ‘unfathomable’ U-turn and began driving in the wrong direction on the M6 on November 19, 2022.
He crashed head-on with Faye’s mother’s Vauxhall Meriva, killing the three-year-old who was sitting in the back seat. Mr Unsworth died at the scene.
At an inquest in Preston, mother Beth Dawson said: ‘My poor babe should have had her whole life ahead of her.
‘To have her life so cruelly snatched away in a moment is something I will never get over. No child should leave this world before their parent.
‘No words will ever come close to the pain.
‘Neither this inquest nor the earlier inquest into the death of the other party, nor the investigation by the police has been able to establish exactly why the other person decided to drove his car the wrong way down the motorway.
‘His actions were inexplicable. It eats away at me and makes it impossible to achieve any kind of justice, closure and the space to grieve.’
Three-year-old Faye Dawson, from Merseyside, lost her life in the crash after driver Terence Unsworth deliberately swerved into oncoming traffic on the M6
Faye’s mother described her as ‘the most amazing, craziest, sassy, gorgeous, caring little girl there will ever be’
Ms Dawson described her daughter as ‘the most amazing, craziest, sassy, gorgeous, caring little girl there will ever be’.
Members of Faye’s family wore T-shirts decorated with pictures of the three-year-old, who was travelling home from a family trip to Blackpool Illuminations when she was killed.
A large pink banner with Faye’s name and photographs was held up outside the courtroom, where coroner Richard Taylor handed down a conclusion of death due to road traffic collision.
An earlier inquest into the death of Mr Unsworth heard the pensioner’s actions were ‘deliberate’, as CCTV footage showed him driving down the slip road of J28 before making a U-turn into the third lane of the southbound motorway.
Investigating officer PC Rachel Carbery said: ‘He has entered the slip road correctly then when he got to the give way lines he has stopped, indicated and done a U-turn. It was a clear and obvious turn in the wrong direction.
‘There were two vehicles in front of Miss Dawson, around 900 metres prior to the collision, they moved out of that lane but I don’t have any evidence to say when that occurred [as they were obscured by a HGV). It was completely impossible for Miss Dawson to avoid that collision.’
However, the investigation was unable to explain why Mr Unsworth decided to drive the wrong way down the motorway.
Terence Unsworth deliberately drove his car the wrong way on the M6 in his Porsche Boxster before crashing into Beth Faye and her three-year-old daughter Faye
A post mortem examination found the pensioner – who had been fitted with a pacemaker around 10 years earlier – had an acute myocardial thrombus and his coronary arteries were ‘severely narrowed’.
But his inquest was told the potential side-effects of confusion and disorientation could not explain his seemingly intentional actions.
Speaking after the inquest today, Faye’s grandmother Sharon Pritchard said: ‘The reason we’re here today is because that man drove the wrong way, and killed Faye. He killed her. The reason we are here is because of what he has done – his actions. None of this would have happened if not for him.’
Following the crash, Faye was taken to Royal Preston Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A post-mortem examination found her cause of death was multiple injuries.
Handing down a conclusion of death due to road traffic collision, coroner Richard Taylor told her family: ‘I can’t begin to imagine what you have had to live through and you have my eternal sympathies for that.’
In a statement following the inquest, Ms Dawson said: ‘Today has been horrible for all of us, having to relive the events of November 19 and the accident which took away my lovely Faye’s life almost before it had truly begun.
‘A family day out. That day was supposed to contain so many happy memories, and was turned so painfully into the worst day of our lives. I am truly heartbroken Faye has been tragically taken away from us. I am so lost without my little babe. Faye was my one and only child, my daughter and my best friend.
‘Faye was the most amazing, craziest, sassy, gorgeous, caring little girl there will ever be. Faye enjoyed singing and dancing, playing outside. She was clever, loved nursery and was so advanced for her age in many ways.
‘My poor babe should have had her whole life ahead of her. To have her life so cruelly snatched away in a moment is something I will never get over. No child should leave this world before their parent. No words will ever come close to the pain.
‘Neither this inquest not the earlier inquest into the death of other other part, nor the investigation by the police has been able to establish exactly why the other person decided to drive his car the wrong way down the motorway. His actions were inexplicable. It eats away at me and makes it impossible to achieve any kind of justice, closure and the space to grieve.
‘Our lives will never be the same. We all love and miss you forever, our Faye.’