The heartbroken fiancée of a father of five has issued a safety plea to drivers
The heartbroken fiancée of a father of five has issued a safety plea to drivers after he died in a collision with two parked cars in Langley Mill. Joseph Wesley Haslam, known as Joe, has been described as a "big kid at heart" and a "real life Peter Pan" following an inquest into his death which revealed that the 38-year-old was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of his crash.
"Please, make sure you wear a seatbelt. I never thought [when Joe left] it would be the last time I saw Joe. Don't take it for granted, as you never know what will happen. A documentary inquest into his death was opened on April 24, 2022, and was resumed at Derby Coroner's Court on Tuesday, October 25. A report from a Derbyshire police detective constable, Patricia Siddall-Hart, said that officers were first called to the scene at 12.40am on April 3 by paramedics from East Midlands Ambulance Service.
Mr Haslam's nephew was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham where he stayed for three weeks. He was in an induced coma for some of that time and is still recovering from abdominal injuries sustained in the incident, with no memory of the crash other than hearing a "massive loud bang". At 12.18am on the morning of April 3, CCTV footage from the snooker club showed Mr Haslam appearing to fall asleep at the bar, before being the last person to leave with Mr Pulford at 12.31am. It was said during the inquest that he was notably tired in the hours leading up to the crash, due to having little sleep the previous night because he was looking after a new litter of puppies and being busy with moving house.
Footage showed that brake lights were applied just moments before impact with the Ford Mondeo, which then stunted a red Honda Jazz parked next to it. Later investigations revealed that Mr Haslam was driving at between 59 and 65mph - double the road's 30mph speed limit - with no defects found with the car.