Police investigating a horrific head-on crash in which three teenagers and a taxi driver all died are examining video footage showing a car speeding through a built-up area at more than 120mph.
The heart-stopping clip is understood to have been uploaded onto Instagram by one of the trio who died when their Seat Leon ploughed into a private hire car in Bolton in the early hours of Sunday.
It is believed to have been filmed at 3am on Saturday, just under 24 hours before the fatal smash, which also left five passengers needing hospital treatment.
Today, a family friend of one of the dead teenagers branded the clip ‘stupid’ and ‘crazy’, saying the boy’s father had been left ‘absolutely broken’.
It is revealed today as families living near the site of the horrific collision said they have been begging for safety measures for years.
Residents told how there are collisions along Wigan Road ‘every couple of months’.
They include a smash just before Christmas outside a primary school where a car collided with a wall just a few hundred yards from the scene of Sunday’s tragedy.
Debris including part of the car’s bumper is still present, while a wall adjacent to the school entrance is partially collapsed.
Footage understood to have been uploaded onto Instagram by one of the teenagers killed in Sunday’s horrific crash showing a Seat driving through a built-up area at over 120mph the night before is now being examined by police
Images from the scene of Sunday’s crash show the mangled bonnet and engine of the Citroen Picasso as it was loaded onto a recovery truck
Masrob Ali, 54, who was tragically killed when his private hire vehicle collided head-on with a Seat containing three teenagers in Bolton in the early hours of Sunday morning, pictured at his 21-year-old daughter Zahrin’s graduation
But residents say they have been told that because previous incidents did not involve serious injury, statistics didn’t justify traffic calming or speed cameras.
A garage worker who knows the family of one of the teenagers killed in the crash said they ‘post stupid videos speeding in the cars, all sorts of things’.
‘I’ll put it as crazy kids, they shouldn’t be doing that kind of speed on that road,’ he added.
‘If you think of the four lives, it’s upsetting, especially with the taxi driver trying to do his weekend and making his money going back to his family.’
Police on Monday confirmed the victims of Sunday’s fatal crash as Mohammed Jibrael Mukhtar and Farhan Patel, both aged 18, and Mohammed Danyaal, aged 19.
Taxi driver, Masrob Ali, 54, who was described by his grieving family as a ‘safe’ driver, also suffered fatal injuries.
Five passengers from both vehicles remain in hospital for treatment, including a 29-year-old woman travelling in the Citroen who suffered potentially life-threatening injuries.
Detectives investigating the tragedy are now understood to be looking into the 29-second clip, which was widely shared on social media.
It shows a car believed to be a Seat Leon weaving through traffic down a darkened residential street at shockingly high speeds.
Footage from CCTV cameras of a nearby property show the Picasso taxi (back left) travelling along Wigan Road in Bolton just before the collision
The point of impact (right) between the two cars appears to show the Seat travelling on the wrong side of the road at speed
At points during the footage the car veers onto the wrong side of the road as it overtakes slower-moving vehicles.
During the senseless stunt the passenger moves the camera to show 122mph displaying on the car’s digital speedometer.
Police have repeatedly warned about a craze in which drivers post clips of themselves speeding on social media, sometimes with deadly consequences.
In 2022, pregnant former Hollyoaks star Frankie Jules-Hough died when Adil Iqbal, 22, lost control of his father’s BMW while filming himself driving at speeds of up to 123mph.
Iqbal – who had previously posted a video to Facebook after filming himself speeding in a Lamborghini in Dubai – was later jailed for 15 years over the tragedy on the M66 in Bury, Greater Manchester.
CCTV of the Bolton crash – which happened at around 12.45am on Sunday morning -appears to show the Seat containing the teenagers travelling at high speed on the wrong side of the 30mph road.
It then hits father-of-four Mr Ali’s Citroen C4 Picasso private hire vehicle head-on.
Today his daughter said he was a ‘safe’ driver and that they were being comforted by the belief that the tragedy did not appear to have been his fault.
‘He was just the kindest man,’ Humayra Ali, 29, told the Daily Mail.
‘Everyone described him as the sweetest, most gentle soul. He would always talk to you with a smile on his face.’
As locals left floral tributes at the scene of Sunday’s tragedy, some said new road safety measures were urgently needed.
Private hire driver Masrob Ali, 54, (pictured) was ‘such a safe driver’ and always used to tell his family ‘don’t worry about me’, they said today
‘With the amount of accidents there have been over the last four or five years, we said it was only a matter of time before a tragedy like this happened,’ said one, a married father.
‘A neighbour has had cars written off and my car got hit twice so I have built a driveway at the back.’
The man added: ‘It would be good to see pressure on the police and the council to put measures on the road like speed cameras.
‘But they have said their view, based on statistics, that the situation didn’t justify any measures. It had to wait for an accident like this.’
He said he and his family heard a ‘screech and a bang’ when the tragic smash happened but praised emergency services for responding rapidly.
A grandfather of eight added: ‘I’ve lived here 25 years and the traffic problems are getting worse and worse. I’ve been complaining for the last four years.
‘Some of my friends are taxi drivers – it could have been one of them killed, or it could have been one of my family.
‘We need action to slow the traffic down.’
And a mother living across from the crash site said: ‘The problem is that it’s quite a long stretch of road which is quite wide with nothing to slow drivers down and with some, I don’t think drivers realise their speed.
‘If they don’t sort something out, I fear more lives will be lost.’
Four people died and five others were injured in the accident in Bolton just before 1am on Sunday morning
On Monday, Detective Inspector Andrew Page, of GMP’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: ‘We are still in the early stages of our investigation and work is ongoing to establish the full circumstances of this terrible incident.
‘As an investigation team we would encourage people to be mindful of sharing footage on social media given the impact this will have on all the families involved in such a tragic incident.
‘Sharing such footage could constitute a criminal offence.
‘Thanks to patrols in the area, teams were able to get to the incident location quickly to what was a particularly challenging scene for colleagues in the emergency services.
‘I want to thank first responders from our Bolton district and the Road Policing Unit, alongside colleagues from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and the North West Ambulance Service for their hard work since this incident.
‘The scene closed on Sunday evening, but we are still appealing for any witnesses to come forward.
‘Anyone who saw the vehicle driving before the collision, witnessed the incident itself, or has dashcam/ CCTV footage of the incident can share it with us.’
Officers appealed for anyone who witnessed the Seat before the collision, the crash itself or anyone with dashcam or CCTV of the incident to get in touch directly on 0161 856 4741, quoting log 111, or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Bolton Council has been approached for comment.
