12:00am Saturday 1st January 2000
by SIMON ROGERSON
A speeding driver who was being chased by police died in an horrific collision on a hump-back bridge in the early hours of Monday.
Richard Brown of St John's Road, Wembley, had to be cut from the mangled wreckage of his Renault 5 after the accident in East Lane, North Wembley, at 4.30am.
Earlier, Mr Brown's car had been spotted speeding in the Wembley area by police officers in an unmarked Vauxhall Astra.
Soon afterwards, a marked police car stopped him near his home. But as officers got out to approach the Renault, Mr Brown sped off.
A little later, the car was seen in Dagmar Avenue. Patrol officers saw Mr Brown lying across the front seat, but as they approached he sat upright and drove off again.
A marked police Astra was pursuing Mr Brown's Renault 5 along East Lane when the accident happened.
According to preliminary police reports, Mr Brown drove over the bridge outside North Wembley station at speed and collided with a Mercedes van travelling in the opposite direction.
The front driver's side of the Renault smashed into the corresponding side of the van, a more solidly-built vehicle.
"The police Astra was some distance behind Mr Brown's car when the accident occurred," a police spokesman said.
Paramedics were called to the scene and firefighters tried to cut through the wreckage of the Renault, in which the driver was trapped. Mr Brown was dead on arrival at Northwick Park Hospital.
The van driver, a bakery delivery man, refused medical treatment.
Although the crash is being investigated by officers from Alperton traffic garage, the case has been voluntarily referred to the Police Complaints Authority by the Metropolitan Police Force.
A man died after his BMW crashed into a lamppost on the North Circular near Brentfield Road on Sunday evening.
Driver Gilbert Johnson of Wimbourne Drive, Kingsbury, died in hospital when his condition suddenly deteriorated.
Accident investigators say his car lost control and spun.
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