Sergeant Entwistle was on duty on the M62 Motorway in Whitefield, when he stopped a car on the hard shoulder of the Motorway behind the Police Range Rover. Sergeant Entwistle went to speak to the driver of the, as he was doing so an articulated lorry drifted onto the hard shoulder and collided with the Cortina, which immediately burst into flames killing Sergeant Entwistle and the occupants of the car.