HOLES IN M56 FENCES SEEN BEFORE TRAGEDY; Maintenancecrews visited site the next day.

Byline: RICHARD DOWN

MAINTENANCE crews were told about holes in motorway fences hours before two young boys were killed on the M56, an inquest heard yesterday.

Kieran Coupe, seven, and his six-year-old friend Guy Davies, of Runcorn, were instantly killed when they were hit by cars at about 7.20pm on October 24, 2007.

But yesterday, Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg heard how at 4pm that day, the contractor charged with maintaining the boundaries along the M56 was told about holes in the fences at Preston Brook, Runcorn.

But it was not able to get out to the scene until 6am the day after the two youngsters were killed.

Richard Bennett, the director of the maintenance contractor, said his company had not breached any contractual obligations.

But he admitted if the gaps in fencing were close to farmland, from which animals could stray onto the motorway, a maintenance team would have been immediately dispatched.

He said: "I understand an area supervisor had seen, on the eastbound carriageway, about 30m of fencing had been removed.

"Once the fence is damaged, there are timeframes for repairs."

Maintenance teams have to make a temporary repair within 24 hours and a permanent repair within 28 days, the inquest heard.

But a smaller hole on the westbound side of the carriageway, close to where the boys crossed, would not have been repaired that quickly because it did not fall into the right category.

Mr Bennett said if the holes had been spotted by his teams on their daily inspections of the motorway, they would have been dealt with.

Police, councillors and residents spoke out about the problems with fences in the immediate aftermath of the boys' deaths.

Yesterday, PC Simon Jordan, a motorway officerwho was on the scene seconds after the fatal collisions, said there was a history of problems with youngsters trying to cross the motorway in that area.

The inquest also heard motorists Carole Sellars, a teaching assistant from Ellesmere Port, TRAGEDY: The M56 motorway and Patricia O'Shea, a psychotherapist from Whitchurch, only spotted the figures of the boys a split second before impact.

Mrs O'Shea, who was driving a Renault Espace, said she could not brake too hard in the heavy traffic for fear of causing a multiple pile-up.

Mrs Sellars, who was driving a Vauxhall Corsa in the nearside lane, agreed and said she only caught sight of movement along the darkened section of road through the right side of the windscreen and side window before hearing a bang.

Other witnesses told the inquest they narrowly missed the boys just moments before the fatal crash as the two boys made their way across the Chester bound carriageway toward the central reservation.

The boys were killed as they returned.

(Proceeding)

CAPTION(S):

FRIENDS: Guy Davies, left, and Kieran Coupe