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A tragic incident unfolded in Marsh Green, Wigan, when 26-year-old Megan Murphy struck and fatally injured a man on a one-way street after failing to properly defrost her windshield. The victim, 31-year-old Darryl Tomlinson, had collapsed in the street after an evening of drinking with friends.
Court proceedings revealed that Murphy was driving the wrong way down a one-way road in the early hours of January 9 last year. Despite repeated warnings from neighbors about her unsafe driving habits-including routinely reversing out of an access lane and ignoring traffic rules to save time-Murphy continued the behavior.
Tomlinson had spent the previous evening visiting friends and consuming alcohol, and was reportedly intoxicated and possibly under the influence of drugs when he left a friend’s apartment near his home. CCTV footage showed him stumbling and falling in the street around 3:19 a.m., where he became incapacitated.
Neighbors who discovered Tomlinson called emergency services at 5:05 a.m., but due to a series of unfortunate miscommunications, neither police nor paramedics arrived at the scene. Meanwhile, Murphy attempted to clear her icy windshield but gave up, leaving her visibility severely impaired. As she drove forward and then reversed, she ran over Tomlinson multiple times, unaware of his presence.
Eyewitnesses nearby signaled urgently and called emergency responders while Murphy, captured on video, admitted to a friend that she had reversed over the man, even calling him a derogatory name while he lay trapped beneath her vehicle.
Tomlinson was pronounced dead at the scene, with a post-mortem confirming multiple injuries consistent with the collision. His mother described the loss as life-altering, expressing heartbreak that Murphy chose to drive without adequately clearing her windshield on that fateful night.
Murphy, a personal trainer by profession, has pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and appeared at Bolton Crown Court for sentencing. The trial is ongoing as the community grapples with the devastating consequences of this avoidable tragedy.