The driver of a car which plunged into a river in Sweden and killed British band Viola Beach “probably acted intentionally”, Swedish police have said.
Band members Tom Lowe, 27, Kris Leonard, 20, River Reeves, 19 and Jack Dakin, 19, and their tour manager Craig Tarry, 33, died after the car they were travelling in fell 80ft through a gap on a motorway bridge, which had been lifted to let through a passing boat, last month.
The band, from Warrington, had played their first gig in Europe prior to the early morning crash on February 13.
The Aftonbladet newspaper in Sweden reconstructed the moment the car approached a lane of stationary cars on the bridge before swerving onto the hard shoulder, crashing through the barriers and continuing towards the bridge.
Lars Berglund, who is leading the Swedish police’s investigation, told the newspaper: “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”.
Kjell Lindgren, from Stockholm Police, told the newspaper it was “not natural to carry on driving if there’s a stop sign, parked cars and blinking red lights.”
An inquest which was opened earlier this month heard that the driver – whose identity has not been revealed – had no alcohol or drugs in his blood at the time of the crash.
