Kieran Coupe, six, and Guy Davies, seven, found dead near their homes in Blythe Close, Murdishaw (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Kieran Coupe, six, and Guy Davies, seven, found dead near their homes in Blythe Close, Murdishaw

10:10am Wednesday 11th November 2009

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FRANTIC 999 calls from motorists shocked to see two young boys trying to cross a busy motorway failed to save their lives, an inquest has heard.

Kieran Coupe, aged seven, and Guy Davies, aged six, were killed on the M56, close to their Runcorn homes in Blythe Close, Murdishaw.

Distraught drivers who saw them pushing their scooters on the hard shoulder immediately pulled over and rang the police on their mobile phones.

A series of witnesses described harrowing images of suddenly spotting the children attempting to cross lanes of fast moving traffic in pitch black - several had to swerve to avoid hitting them.

Teaching assistant Joanne Bell, of Ellesmere Port, said: “One of the boys had climbed over the central reservation onto the grass verge. The second boy had fallen over in the fast lane.

“He was on his hands and knees, struggling to get up.

“I braked suddenly and swerved into the middle lane.

“I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that the boy who had fallen got up and was back on the grass verge.”

Retired Bernard Heaton, of Chester, said he would have hit the boys if he hadn’t taken evasive action.

He said: “I saw legs at first as a lad shot past me on a scooter.

“I saw the kid’s face. He just looked at me and I looked at him and he was gone.”

Telephone operator Paul Wheeler, of Elton, recalled how he suddenly saw the front wheel of a scooter on the rumble strip next to the inside lane as he was travelling at 70mph.

He said: “It looked as if they were about to cross the motorway. I moved the car to avoid them.”

He rang the police who said they had already been alerted by nine motorists.

Motorway patrol officer PC Simon Jordan, first to respond to the 999 call, was delayed after being given inaccurate information.

He was told ‘young males’ were on the hard shoulder of the M56 at Bowden.

He sped to Preston Brook, when he received an update but was sent to the wrong carriageway.

PC Jordan said: “The children had been hit seconds before I got there.

“I could see one body lying in lane two and one on the hard shoulder.

“All I was given was two young males at the side of the motorway with scooters. I expected teenagers who may have run out of petrol.

“I wasn’t told it was children.”

Both boys died instantly at 7.20pm on October 24, 2007 from multiple injuiries.

The inquest continues.

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