Viola Beach car crash was ‘probably intentional’

The driver of a car that plunged into a Swedish river, killing British indie band Viola Beach, probably drove off a bridge "intentionally" but did not intend to kill anyone, police believe.

The four band members - Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe and Jack Dakin - were killed alongside their manager Craig Tarry when their hire car plunged 25m off a bridge into a canal near the Swedish capital Stockholm at about 2.30am on February 13th.

A preliminary postmortem examination revealed that the driver, who police have not yet identified, did not have drugs or alcohol in his body.

However, investigators are examining the possibility that the Nissan Qashqai was deliberately crashed through a barrier, which was in place as the bridge was raised for a passing ship.

Lars Berglund, one of the police investigators, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: "We cannot find any external factors. It looks like the driver acted deliberately."

CCTV footage

Police have examined CCTV footage of the incident.

A reconstruction by the newspaper shows the band’s car slowing to a near stop behind a queue of cars waiting for the barriers to open, before swerving left on to a narrow hard shoulder, then accelerating and crashing through the barriers and disappearing from view.

Mr Berglund told the Aftonbladet that the barriers were clearly visible to waiting traffic, as were the warning lights.

“As far as I can see, most [of the band] had already been killed up there on the bridge. It looks like the driver was acting intentionally.”

However, he told the Mirror Online: “There is no suggestion that [the driver] intended to kill himself or the band.

“I think the driver’s only intention was to avoid a crash.”

No mechanical fault has been found with either the car or the bridge’s barriers.

The band had been due to play a homecoming gig at Warrington's Pyramid in England on March 12th.

PA